You might not know that J.J. Abrams‘ (‘Star Trek: Into Darkness‘,’Super 8’) favorite horror movie of all time is ‘Phantasm’ but we’ve recently learned that he’s working with original director Don Coscarelli (‘John Dies at the End‘,’Bubba Ho-Tep’) to give us a 4k restoration of the film! In fact, Abrams recently shared that a certain ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ characters was named after the film as “Phasma I named because of the amazing chrome design that came from Michael Kaplan’s wardrobe team. It reminded me of the ball in Phantasm, and I just thought, Phasma sounds really cool.”
So what can we expect in the film aside from the 4k quality visuals? They also have “a brand-new 5.1 audio soundtrack” in store for us. Not yet completed, it should be done within the next month and have a limited theater release in the first half of 2016. Coscarelli feels that the film “plays so beautifully up on the big screen” that we’ll be getting a theatrical release before a new Blu-ray edition comes out.
The entire project came about when Abrams wanted to show a private filming of ‘Phantasm’ at his Bad Robot studio and when he found that the prints were in pretty bad condition he offered to restore them. This projet became “a meticulous 4K restoration from the original camera negative.” I think with the higher quality look mixed in with a 5.1 soundtrack that this will be one collectors will be eager to snatch up.
I know I am.
The first stills released which you can see above clearly show that the film looks as if it will be almost a new movie entirely for anyone who has had the pleasure of seeing the originals. All I can hope now is that Abrams hasn’t added any lens flares onto those wonderful flying silver balls of death.
Are you looking forward to the HD release of ‘Phantasm’? Are you glad to hear that Coscarelli has developed a friendship with Abrams who was willing to help with the restoration? Share your thoughts below!
Sources: Entertainment Weekly
