Roger Ebert Hated It So Much He Refused to Write a Review
| The Phantom | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Simon Wincer |
| Written by | Jeffrey Boam |
| Based on | The Phantom by Lee Falk |
| Produced by |
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| Starring |
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| Cinematography | David Burr |
| Edited by |
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| Music by | David Newman |
| Product |
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| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date |
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| Running time | 100 minutes |
| Countries |
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| Linguistic communication | English |
| Budget | $45 million |
| Box role | $23.5 million[ane] |
The Phantom is a 1996 superhero moving-picture show directed by Simon Wincer. Based on Lee Falk'south comic strip The Phantom past King Features, the moving-picture show stars Billy Zane every bit a seemingly immortal crimefighter and his battle against all forms of evil. The Phantom also stars Treat Williams, Kristy Swanson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, James Remar and Patrick McGoohan. The pic's screenplay by Jeffrey Boam is loosely inspired past 3 of The Phantom stories, "The Singh Brotherhood", "The Heaven Band"[two] and "The Belt"; but adds supernatural elements and several new characters.[ citation needed ]
Primary photography began in Oct 1995 and concluded on February 13, 1996. The film was shot in California, Thailand and Australia.
The Phantom was released on June vii, 1996, and received mixed reviews from film critics, who were divided over whether its pulp adventure approach was charming and authentic or vapid and dull. Despite financial failure in its theatrical release, the film has enjoyed success on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray, and has developed a cult following.[3]
Plot [edit]
In the early 16th century, a young boy helplessly witnesses his father killed by Kabai Sengh, the ruthless leader of the Sengh Brotherhood, who attacked their ship. The boy jumps overboard and is done ashore on Bengalla, an island where local tribesmen detect him and take him to their village. There he is given the Skull Ring, swears to devote his life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty, and injustice, and equally an developed, adopts the identity of "The Phantom," a masked avenger. The role of The Phantom is passed on from father to son through 400 years, leading people to believe in a unmarried, immortal figure.
In 1938, Kit Walker, the 21st Phantom, finds Quill leading a mercenary grouping in the jungle searching for one of the Skulls of Touganda, which grants its owner a tremendously destructive ability. The Phantom saves the native boy they kidnapped to exist their guide and captures Quill'due south men, leaving them for the Jungle Patrol to option upwardly. Revealed to exist a Sengh Alliance member and the man who killed Kit'south father - whose ghost frequently appears to give Kit advice - Quill flees with the Skull and returns to the U.s..
In New York City, Kit's college ex-girlfriend, Diana Palmer, is a frequent traveler whose uncle, Dave Palmer, is the famous possessor of the World Tribune paper. The paper has been investigating power-hungry businessman Xander Drax, a shady character with a reputation for dealing with criminals. Palmer has uncovered Drax'south connexion to a mysterious spider web symbol, which he traces back to the Bengalla Jungle. He sends Diana to investigate but makes the mistake of telling New York's corrupt constabulary commissioner, who is allied with Drax, of Diana's trip. Drax'south female person air pirates led past femme fatale, Sala, hijack the aeroplane; Diana is abducted and taken to their waterfront base in Bengalla. Having been informed of Diana's abduction by the Jungle Patrol's captain, Phillip Horton, the Phantom rescues her and escapes from Quill and his men to his headquarters, the Skull Cave.
In New York, at present dressed as his civilian cocky, Kit meets with David Palmer at the World Tribune and once again meets with Diana, who has mixed feelings about him since his sudden disappearance several years earlier. Diana's would-be suitor Jimmy Wells mentions he had seen one of the skulls in the Museum of World History, so Kit and Diana hurry there. Drax and his men capture them, steal the second Skull and unite information technology with the start, revealing the location of the third Skull on an uncharted island in the Andaman Ocean, known as the Devil's Vortex. Kit manages to escape and, as the Phantom, evades the constabulary outside the museum. Meanwhile, after Sala reveals that Diana is the Phantom'due south girlfriend, she flies Drax, Quill, and Diana to the Devil's Vortex, not knowing that the Phantom has managed to hitch a ride on ane of the plane's landing pontoons.
On the island, Drax meets with the pirate Kabai Sengh, straight descendant of the Brotherhood'southward original leader, who possesses the third Skull. Sengh warns Drax of the Fourth Skull's existence, which controls the power of the other iii. The Phantom appears and battles both men, with Kabai Sengh killed by sharks, and Diana and Sala cooperate to defeat the other villains. Drax unites the 3 Skulls and turns their ability confronting the Phantom; Quill is accidentally hit and disintegrated in the procedure. The Phantom uses the Fourth Skull – his band – to plow the Skulls' ability back against them, destroying them and Drax in a powerful explosion. As the energy destroys the island, the Phantom narrowly escapes with Diana and Sala.
Returning to Bengalla, Diana reveals to the Phantom that she has figured out his secret and double identity. Kit removes his mask, telling her that he can only disclose all of his secrets to one person, the woman he intends to ally, but she leaves again for New York. Kit'southward father laments his son'southward failure to pursue Diana but states that she will return to the Phantom'southward jungle, and Kit, 1 24-hour interval.
Cast [edit]
- Billy Zane as Kit Walker / Phantom
- Treat Williams equally Xander Drax
- Kristy Swanson as Diana Palmer
- Catherine Zeta-Jones every bit Sala
- James Remar as Quill
- Patrick McGoohan as Mr. Walker / The 20th Phantom
- Radmar Agana Jao equally Guran
- Robert Coleby equally Captain Philip Horton
- Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as The Smashing Kabai Sengh
- Nib Smitrovich as Dave Palmer
- Casey Siemaszko equally Morgan
- David Proval as Charlie Zephro
- Joseph Ragno as Ray Zephro
- Al Ruscio as Police Commissioner Farley
- Samantha Eggar as Lily Palmer
- Jon Tenney as Jimmy Wells
- John Capodice as Al, The Cabby
Product [edit]
Rumours of a Phantom flick accommodation had first started to broadcast when director Sergio Leone expressed his involvement in the holding in an interview. Leone had started to write a script and spotter locations for his proposed motion picture version of the Phantom, which he planned to be followed past an adaptation of Lee Falk's other comic-strip hero, Mandrake the Wizard.[4] The 2d projection was never finalized.
Joe Dante was originally fastened to direct a Phantom film for Paramount Pictures in the early 1990s, and he developed a draft of the script together with Jeffrey Boam. Dante and Boam's script was originally tongue-in-cheek in tone and the climax included a winged demon. When Paramount pushed the film back a year, Dante left for other commitments, and eventually ended up beingness credited as one of the executive producers. According to Dante:
I adult the script with the late Jeff Boam, who wrote Innerspace, as a kind of a spoof. We were a few weeks away from shooting in Australia when the plug was pulled over the budget and the presence of a winged demon at the climax. A year or so afterwards it was put dorsum into product – sans demon – just nobody seemed to detect it was written to exist funny, so information technology was – disastrously – played straight. Many unintentionally funny moments were cut after a raucous test screening and I foolishly refused money to have my proper noun off the picture, so I'm credited equally i of a zillion producers.[5]
Joel Schumacher was considered to directly the film, but the chore was given to Simon Wincer, who had been a fan of the character since childhood.[ citation needed ] When he traveled to Los Angeles to meet with Paramount executives, he discovered that they intended to release the picture show in July 1996.[ citation needed ] The Phantom was originally intended to be filmed in Hawaii, and the product schedule would go over budget by $x million. Wincer decided to film it in New York City, Thailand and his native Commonwealth of australia, reducing the budget by $12 one thousand thousand as a issue.[ citation needed ]
Wincer then bandage Billy Zane, who had won praise for his work as a psychopath in Dead Calm, as the Phantom. Zane, a huge fan of the comic strip subsequently being introduced to it on the gear up of Dead At-home,[6] won the part subsequently contest from Bruce Campbell and New Zealand player Kevin Smith. After his casting, he spent over a year and a half to get the correct muscular look of the Phantom.[7] He likewise studied the grapheme's torso language in comic strip artwork, carefully imitating it in his operation.[viii]
Filming [edit]
Filming began on October 3, 1995, in Los Angeles at Greystone Park. For the exterior of the Palmers' English language-way manor the mansion of Playboy magazine's Hugh Hefner, a longtime fan of the Phantom, was used.[9]
The Los Angeles Zoo in Griffith Park doubled for New York Urban center's Central Park Zoo, the setting for a chase sequence. Shooting continued on Hollywood studio backlot streets that recreated the 1938 version of New York Metropolis. Over fifty vintage cars were used on the streets, and four hundred extras costumed in authentic menstruation clothing were employed.[9]
In October, the product traveled to Thailand for 7 weeks of filming at that place, with the land doubling as the Phantom's fictional home country Bengalla. Action scenes such as the Phantom saving a boy from a collapsing rope bridge were filmed here. Production designer Paul Peters changed a deserted warehouse in the town Krabi into a large sound stage, where the Phantom's Skull Cave dwelling house was erected, including his Relate Chamber, vault, and radio and treasure rooms.
In Dec, the crew traveled to Commonwealth of australia, where production occupied viii sound stages at the Village Roadshow Studios in Brisbane, Queensland.[ix] At Stage 5, the Singh Pirates Cavern was constructed, constituting the largest interior setting e'er built in the country. The New York offices of Xander Drax were synthetic on Phase 6. Filming in Queensland likewise took the production to the Brisbane Urban center Hall, where the interior foyer was redecorated to resemble a New York museum, where Kit Walker finds i of the iii Skulls of Touganda. Estate Apartment Hotel in Brisbane was used as a stand up in for a New York skyscraper.
On the concluding mean solar day of shooting, the production relocated to Los Angeles, California to complete a scene that would ultimately terminate upwardly deleted from the concluding cut of the pic, where the Phantom wrestles a panthera leo. Filming concluded on February 13, 1996.[10]
Many scenes developing the romance between the Phantom/Kit Walker and Diana Palmer were cut in gild to make the film more fast-paced. An action scene featuring the Phantom fighting a serpent was also cut. A scene with the Phantom and his equus caballus Hero rearing in the sunset was cut out of the film, but shown at the finish of the 1996 A&E documentary The Phantom: Comic Strip Crusader.
Relation to the original stories [edit]
The motion picture features several elements from Lee Falk's first two Phantom stories from the 1936 daily newspaper strips, "The Singh Alliance" and "The Sky Band". Several of the characters in the moving-picture show derive from these stories: Kabai Sengh (played past Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), leader of the Sengh Alliance (the name of the brotherhood was changed to 'Sengh' in the film, to avert offending people named Singh), Sala (played by Catherine Zeta-Jones), leader of the Heaven Band, a group of female air pirates, and Jimmy Wells (Jon Tenney), a wealthy playboy.
The more realistic plots of Falk'due south original stories were dropped in favor of an adventure tale that featured the supernatural "Skulls of Touganda". Falk's story "The Belt",[xi] where the Phantom fights the killer of his male parent, was also a major influence on the story; but the name of the murderer is inverse from Rama to Quill, and the 20th Phantom, played by Patrick McGoohan, is portrayed every bit a much older homo in the film than in the comic strip.
Release [edit]
To coincide with the premiere of the motion-picture show, the Phantom was used as a role of the Got Milk? campaign, based on the graphic symbol's drinking milk in the comic.[12] Two dissimilar Phantom activity figures were made by Street Player,[13] and promotional Phantom-rings were also offered. Unlike sets of Phantom collecting cards were also available in countries such as the U.s.a., Commonwealth of australia, Finland and Sweden. Movie theater popcorn tubs and paper soda cups featuring the movie'southward poster were also used to help promote the film.
Reception [edit]
The film suffered the same fate as ii other period-piece comic book/pulp adaptations of the 1990s, The Shadow (1994) and The Rocketeer (1991), and did not fare very well at the box office in the U.s., debuting at number six the weekend of June 7, 1996.[xiv] It has since sold well on VHS and DVD.[3] [xv]
Reviews were mixed. It has a 43% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 46 reviews, with the consensus "The script gives Billy Zane little to work with, and thus he plays the Phantom every bit a friendly only completely i-dimensional hero."[16] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Lord's day-Times called it "1 of the all-time-looking movies in a long time", giving the film three-and-a-half stars out of four.[17]
Many critics were pleased with The Phantom 's uncomplicated, nostalgic tone. For example, in the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan described it as a modest, unassuming film which "is gently self-mocking as opposed to excessively wised up. With a direct-arrow hero and villains that wouldn't scare a tadpole, it holds our interest via its human scale and the pleasure it takes in being true to its origins." He praised the manager'south synergy with the script and actors, and approved of how the activeness sequences rely on practical stunts rather than computer generated images, saying this lends faithfulness to the character'southward pulp roots.[xviii]
Godfrey Cheshire Three similarly wrote in Variety that the film "brings a light touch on to appealingly onetime-fashioned action cloth, creating a fast-moving yarn". He approved of the conclusion to sidestep the Phantom's African origin (which was considered racially insensitive by the fourth dimension of the moving-picture show's release) instead of reworking it, and while he acknowledged that the character'due south portrayal is ii-dimensional, he felt that this was also appropriate to the quondam-fashioned tone.[nineteen]
British critic Kim Newman wrote for Empire that the film "has a pleasant experience – few superheroes have been as sunny and optimistic – as Zane breezes through chases and fights, stops for the odd quip – and pals around with a heroic horse, a dashing dog and the helpful ghost of his father", and gave the film iii out of five stars.[20]
In contrast, Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly reviled the title graphic symbol as hopelessly outdated, adding that "As the Phantom, Billy Zane, buff to the max, has a likable insouciance, only there'due south not much he can do to flesh out this relic. With its generic stunts and chases, its hand-me-down cheeseball mysticism (the plot hinges on a hunt for magic skulls), the motion picture, while crisply shot, has even less personality than such crusader retreads as The Rocketeer and The Shadow." He gave the film a C.[21]
The Stinkers Bad Film Awards handpicked this film for the Founders Honor - What Were They Thinking and Why? alongside The Stupids when conducting their 1996 ballot.[22]
Future [edit]
Billy Zane originally signed upwardly to do two sequels, but these were not fabricated considering of the disappointing sale of tickets for The Phantom in theaters.[23]
In 2008, Paramount Pictures was considering creating a sequel to The Phantom, with Zane, Swanson and Zeta-Jones returning in their roles.[3] In December 2008, it was appear instead that a reboot of the Phantom series was in the works, chosen The Phantom: Legacy,[24] to be produced by Bruce Sherlock (who was too an executive producer of The Phantom) and written by Tim Boyle. Sam Worthington was being considered for the atomic number 82 part.[25] By 2014, plans for this motion-picture show had fallen through as well, and producer Mark Gordon was instead attached to a Phantom reboot.[25]
Novelization [edit]
A novelization of The Phantom was written by Rob MacGregor, the author of a series of Indiana Jones novels. This novel included a more detailed await at the backstory of many characters, and the origin of The Phantom. Several scenes that were omitted from the final cut of the moving-picture show are also included.
Blu-ray release [edit]
The Phantom was released on Blu-ray on February 9, 2010, by Lionsgate[26] and re-released by Paramount on September 15, 2020.
Soundtrack [edit]
The film's score was composed by David Newman, who previously collaborated with director Simon Wincer on Operation Dense Drop, and performed past the London Metropolitan Orchestra under the composer'southward baton. A soundtrack anthology was released by Milan on June 4, 1996; La-La Land Records issued an expanded edition on July iii, 2012.[27]
References [edit]
- ^ "The Phantom (1996) - JPBox-Office".
- ^ "The Phantom movie review". Ram.org. Retrieved February 28, 2011.
- ^ a b c Smith, Liz (September 4, 2008). "'Phantom' Of Cinema Returns". New York Post. Archived from the original on September 6, 2008. Retrieved April 14, 2017.
- ^ "Mandrake The magician [Annal] - The Superhero Hype! Boards". Forums.superherohype.com. Retrieved February 28, 2011.
- ^ "The Den of Geek interview: Joe Dante". Den of Geek. Retrieved Feb 28, 2011.
- ^ "The Phantom". July thirteen, 2011. Archived from the original on July 13, 2011. Retrieved April 14, 2017.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ Caro, Mark (June 7, 1996). "'The Phantom' Diet". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved Baronial 23, 2017.
- ^ "zane". Edrhoades.com. Archived from the original on July 10, 2011. Retrieved February 28, 2011.
- ^ a b c "HDTGM: A Conversation with Simon Wincer, Manager of THE PHANTOM". slashfilm.com. Retrieved May sixteen, 2019.
- ^ "The Phantom - Product Notes". Paramount Pictures. Archived from the original on December 12, 1997. Retrieved Jan 25, 2019.
- ^ "The Belt", 1954 Dominicus strips, #37; reworked for the 1962 Gold Key comics, issue #viii
- ^ "Got Milk? People With Milk Moustaches". ListAfterList.com. Retrieved February 28, 2011.
- ^ "Phantom News". Deepwoods.org. Retrieved February 28, 2011.
- ^ Robert W. Welkos (June 11, 1996). "'The Rock' Adds to the Sizzle". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved April 14, 2017.
- ^ "Comic blockbuster The Phantom to be fabricated Down Under". News.com.au. Archived from the original on Feb xviii, 2009. Retrieved April fourteen, 2017.
- ^ "The Phantom (1996)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved May xiii, 2011.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (June 7, 1996). "The Phantom Movie Review & Motion-picture show Summary (1996) | Roger Ebert". rogerebert.com . Retrieved July 20, 2020.
- ^ Turan, Kenneth (June 7, 1996). "'The Phantom' Does Justice to Its Unproblematic Origins". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved April 14, 2017.
- ^ Cheshire, Godfrey (June 7, 1996). "THE PHANTOM". diversity.com . Retrieved May xvi, 2019.
- ^ "The Phantom Review". Empire . Retrieved February 28, 2011.
- ^ Gleiberman, Owen (June xiv, 1996). "The Phantom". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved July 4, 2019.
- ^ "The Stinkers 1996 Ballot". Stinkers Bad Movie Awards. Archived from the original on Baronial xviii, 2000. Retrieved September 4, 2019.
- ^ "Film Scouts Interviews". Filmscouts.com. June 3, 1996. Retrieved February 28, 2011.
- ^ SuperHeroHype. "Update: A Sequel to The Phantom in the Works". Superhero Hype. Retrieved Feb 28, 2011.
- ^ a b Gallagher, Brian (April 30, 2014). "Is 'The Phantom' Reboot Moving Forward with 'Narnia' Producer Mark Gordon?". MovieWeb.
- ^ "The Phantom (Blu-ray)". DVD Talk . Retrieved April 9, 2011.
- ^ Filmtracks (August 26, 2012). "The Phantom". Retrieved September 25, 2015.
External links [edit]
- Official website (ARCHIVED)
- The Phantom at IMDb
- The Phantom at AllMovie
- The Phantom at Box Function Mojo
- The Phantom at Oz Movies
- The Phantom at Rotten Tomatoes
- Time Out review
- The Phantom at the National Film and Sound Annal
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_(1996_film)
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