Phantasm.com Now Selling Hammers

Here's something rather unexpected. The official Phantasm store is now offering limited edition replicas of Mike's shotgun-shell-enhanced-hammer from the original film! These replicas ship out in a glass case and are hand-signed by Don Coscarelli. The official site has dubbed this item the "Phantasm War Hammer" and they're each priced at $99.99.

Per the product page: This beautiful prop replica of the Hammer/Shotgun shell device, which young Mike uses to escape his bedroom in the original Phantasm, comes in a lovely glass and wood display case. The hammer handle is autographed by Phantasm creator Don Coscarelli and signature comes with a Certificate of Authenticity. The shotgun shell within is empty and non-operational. This display case containing the Phantasm War Hammer is approximately 15" in length, 8.5" in width and approximately 2.5" tall.

Get yours here. What other prop replicas would you like to see? Reggie's dwarf-destroying four-barrel? Better quality spheres? A life-size space gate, perhaps?

VIDEO: Watch Don Coscarelli Crash an R/C Mini-'Cuda into the Tall Man!

Move over, Regman. There's someone else behind the wheel of this 'Cuda.

R/C car enthusiast Alex Khan very recently attended this year's Fantasm convention in Orlando where he met Phantasm creator Don Coscarelli. (Recall that Alex made an incredible Phantasm Ravager R/C Battle-Cuda several years back.) In meeting Coscarelli, Alex was able to share his standard R/C 'Cuda and even gave the filmmaker a chance to drive it around the convention floor!

Naturally, Coscarelli plows the muscle car right into the Tall Man and a dwarf. Hot as love!

Check out the video below!

Event Report: Don Coscarelli Night at the Strand Theater

Last night was a great night to be in Seymour, Connecticut. That's where The Strand Theater held Don Coscarelli Night, which consisted of a double-feature screening of Bubba Ho-Tep and the original Phantasm. We've got a report from the event and some sweet photos thanks to mega-phan Scott Pensa, who was in attendance.

The night also included some great cult movie trailers, giveaways, and raffles. Additionally, the theater commissioned artist Matt Wilson to create a special limited edition print for the night depicting both films. Printed on metallic paper, the silver edition was limited to forty copies. The night also contained an unannounced treat in that Matt also printed an extremely limited gold variant edition. How limited? Five copies limited. Scott snapped up four of these prints for himself, myself, and fellow mega-phans Peter Marullo and Matt Naylor. The fifth gold variant print went to the artist himself. Could you imagine being the disappointed phan behind Scott in line wanting one of these? Ha!!

The Strand also printed these nifty Phantasm plastic cups for the event, which feature a silver sphere and the Tall Man's iconic line from the original film's finale. Eagle-eyed Scott kept watchful eye to see if anyone left their cup behind or threw it away as they're collectible, but he says people were clinging to them, so damn. Thanks for the report and photos, Scott!

Don Coscarelli to Publish Memoir This October!

Here's some terrific news heading into the weekend: Entertainment Weekly has the exclusive announcement that Phantasm creator Don Coscarelli will release a memoir this October from St. Martin's Press. The publisher has the following book description on their website where you can also pre-order a copy.

"From Don Coscarelli, the celebrated filmmaker behind many cherished cult classics comes a memoir that’s both revealing autobiography and indie film crash course. Best known for his horror/sci-fi/fantasy films including Phantasm, The Beastmaster, Bubba Ho-tep and John Dies at the End, now he’s taking you on a white-knuckle ride through the wild world of the independent filmmaker. 

Join Coscarelli as he sells his first feature film to Universal Pictures and gets his own office on the studio lot while still a teenager. Travel with him as he chaperones three out-of-control child actors as they barnstorm Japan, almost drowns actress Catherine Keener in her first film role, and turns a short story about Elvis Presley battling a four thousand year-old Egyptian mummy into a beloved cult classic film. True Indie is loaded with the filmmaker’s behind-the-scenes stories, like setting his face on fire during the making of Phantasm, hearing Bruce Campbell’s most important question before agreeing to star in Bubba Ho-tep, and crafting a horror thriller into a franchise phenomenon spanning four decades. 

Not just memoir, True Indie is also a crash course on the indie film world. Find out how Coscarelli managed to retain creative and financial control of his works in an industry ruled by power-hungry predators, and all without going insane or bankrupt. True Indie will prove indispensable for film fans, aspiring filmmakers, and anyone who loves an underdog success story."

New Japanese Phantasm Box Set Comes With Coscarelli Letter

February sees the release of a new international Phantasm Blu-ray set, this time from Japan. Dubbed the "Perfect Box," it contains all five Phantasm films and a slew of bonus features. (I'm not entirely sure what those features are since I haven't been able to find an English press release for the set.) Among the exclusives in this release is a personal letter (pictured below) from series creator Don Coscarelli in English. The "Perfect Box" also comes with six nifty postcard prints of the films' intriguing Japanese artwork, which you can also see below. Click any of the poster artworks below to see them larger.

You can buy this set from Amazon Japan, but you'll need to be able to navigate their website, which is in all Japanese, in order to purchase it. Maybe a browser translator could help?

Read a Page from Phantasm's Long Lost Script!

The following is a special treat and arguably one of the rarest items I've posted here on the Phantasm Archives across the past ten years. Series crewmember Kristen Deem was recently cleaning out some old boxes from her collection when she stumbled across a script page from the original Phantasm!

Why is this so significant? Because Phantasm's original script is the holy grail of series collectibles. Although the film was changed, re-written, and condensed throughout production, it DID have a script at the start of filming, albeit one without an ending. Some cast received this incomplete draft early on while others only received script pages on the day their scenes were to be filmed. In researching the original film for my Phantasm Exhumed book, I found that no cast member from the original film had kept any part of its script.

Presented here for your viewing pleasure is a page from Phantasm's script. Notice that Jody calls one of the dwarves a "dog in heat" instead of a "gopher in heat" as in the film. A much bigger difference is that the dwarf-driven hearse speeds past Mike and Jody much earlier in this draft than in the finished film. Thanks to Kristen Deem for sharing!

Want a Coscarelli Signed Companion Book?

If you don't check in with the Official Phantasm Store very often, you may have missed something cool pop up recently. The Phactory website is now selling copies of John W. Bowen's Authorized Phantasm Companion. These aren't just any random copies - they're hand signed/numbered by series creator Don Coscarelli and limited to a scant 199. Kind of a bummer that they don't also come with Bowen's scrawl, but certainly Coscarelli's autograph is a must for any Phantasm collector if you don't already have it on something.

As Phantasm's foremost unauthorized author, I don't mind telling you that the Authorized Companion, which comes from the team behind Rue Morgue Magazine, is an enjoyable and attractively designed read.

Grab your signed copy here!

Coscarelli Teases Sixth Phantasm in New Book!

Word has hit via Dread Central that the new 120-page Phantasm Compendium book contained within Well Go's upcoming Blu-Ray Collection has Don Coscarelli speaking on a possible sixth Phantasm movie. His comments on the subject are below. You can read them and the rest of the Compendium when North American Phantasm Collection hits shelves on April 11. This begs the question... is Phantasm more than the sum of the original cast? Or is Phantasm all about the spheres, the 'Cudas, the mythology and the atmosphere? It's an interesting subject to ponder.

“All I can tell you about [Phantasm VI] is rest assured that we are constantly researching and experimenting here in the Phantasm labs, so who knows what we might cook up in the near future. However, I do think that Phantasm: Ravager will be the last you see of the original Phantasm actors in the series.”