Writer Stephen Romano Remembers Angus Scrimm

Stephen Romano, the genius writer behind the Phantasm: Overminds comic, Masters of Horror's Incident On and Off a Mountain Road and the yet unproduced Bubba Nosferatu and Phantasm Forever, has paid wonderful tribute to Angus Scrimm over at Dread Central. Before some of his bigger writing successes, Stephen was a huge Phantasm phan foremost. He even planned the franchise's first-ever dedicated convention event - Phantasmania - in 2000.

It's apparent reading over his tribute that Stephen is speaking straight from the heart. This piece easily ranks among my favorite remembrances of the man we're all missing so badly right now. Give it a read.

New Art/Details from Unmade Phantasm V

The second entry in Stephen Romano's fantastic article series on his unmade sequel, Phantasm Forever, has been posted over at Dread Central! This installment is particularly good, with insights about the unfinished Phantasm Overminds comic and the aborted New Line Cinema remake, the latter of which has scantly ever been discussed publicly. Stephen has also included some incredibly rare concept artwork from Phantasm Forever. Go have a look.

The third and final part of his revealing retrospective should pop online sometime next week and promises to address the infamous Phantasm Forever table read!!

Former P5 Writer Talks, More Ravager Confusion

Writer Stephen Romano, who penned an unused Phantasm V, Phantasm remake and the Phantasm comic, has begun unveiling "an epic three-part confessional" on his lost sequel effort, Phantasm Forever, over at Dread Central. This was the lost sequel from which the infamous table read came from. Information about this project has always been extremely hard to come by, so the fact that Stephen is now going to tell his "intensely personal" side of it in an "in-depth" manner is terrifically exciting news! The first part of his confessional is now online, with the second hitting next week. The Phantasm world is and always has been tightly controlled by Don Coscarelli, so the fact that we're getting such a special insight makes this a unique gift to phans.

In other news, Starway International has officially registered to present Phantasm Ravager at the American Film Market, a standard path for gaining distribution on Phantasm sequels. Starway's production listing, which was updated a few days ago, still lists Ravager as being in post-production and not set for completion until next year, which doesn't exactly jive with what cast has been saying. Furthermore, Starway lists that the new sequel was "filmed in secret over the past three years."

Why is Coscarelli sticking to this three year number? I literally showed you a picture from this film back in early 2009, which is more along the line of six years, not three. I haven't gotten any memo that I should be playing along with the new official story yet, so until then I'll just go with, y'know, reality. Something tells me this won't be the last instance of Ravager's public presentation not lining up with how things actually are. The next year is going to be interesting.

Also, the sequel's AFM listing mentions that the five Phantasm films will soon be available in HD for licensing internationally, but makes no mention of domestic. Might this mean Ravager and the three sequels (one, three and four) that Coscarelli controls have already found a home here in the states??

Stephen Romano talks New Novel, Addresses Ravager

Stephen Romano - we haven't heard much from the artist/writer since he quietly left the Phantasm universe several years ago to pursue new creative endeavors, unleashing several mythologies of his own upon the world. As you'll recall, Stephen organized the world's first and only exclusively Phantasm convention in 2000, wrote the Phantasm: Overminds comic, exhumed and published Kate Coscarelli's long dormant Phantasm novel, wrote smashing, unproduced screenplays for a Phantasm remake and Phantasm V *and* co-wrote Don Coscarelli's Masters of Horror episode. As far as I'm concerned, he is truly an unsung hero of Phantasm and, if we're lucky, he'll one day return.

In recent years, Stephen has published several marvelous works of his own, often with Phantasm cohorts (notably Shock Festival with David Hartman and Gloria Lynne-Henry, see my review here) and now he's back with a new novel, METRO, that debuts today. His new story was inspired by a weird nirvana house of horrors in Austin, Texas called "The Kingdom" where Stephen lived and worked for many years. It was here that he created his first book The Riot Act and wrote a slew of screenplays, including some of those mentioned above. 

The official description from Simon and Schuster reads, "The acclaimed author of Resurrection Express breaks all the rules in this non-stop suspense thriller packed with killers, comic books, drug lords, and film nerds. For the last five years, Jollie, Andy, and Mark have lived together in a crazy bohemian crash pad in Austin, Texas, immersed in an endless summer of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. But one of them is not what they seem to be. And when that person finally blows a decades-long cover during a violent attack on a powerful Austin dope dealer, all hell breaks loose in the bloody, bullet-riddled aftermath. As the façade of the normal world sizzles away, revealing an ominous shadow league of endemic spies and assassins known only as METRO, Jollie, Andy, and Mark must run like hell into a very dark night, where love and friendship will bind them, a terrifying hatchet man will close in to kill them, and the pitch black truth about everything will be revealed, again and again." 

METRO is available today as a digital download exclusive from Simon and Schuster and selling for the crazy low price of $1.99. That's cheaper than a good cup of coffee!! Hell, that's even cheaper than some bad cups of coffee.

Many phans have been wondering about Stephen's involvement with the new Phantasm Ravager, especially since some of his ideas have been apparent in preview footage from the film. Speaking to Dread Central last week, Stephen commented, "Some people have asked me if I had anything to do with the new P sequel that’s coming out this year, and I thought I’d take this moment to address the question. It’s a simple answer. No, I didn’t. But the new director, Dave Hartman is awesome and he’s a good buddy and the film is gonna rock your world. I like Dave so much that I named the super nasty bad guy in my novel “Resurrection Express” after him. I’m sure he appreciated that!"

Get your digital copy of METRO here and visit Stephen Romano's official website here.