You might be aware that STAR WARS: EPISODE VII – THE FORCE AWAKENS is going to be released into theatres this weekend. A few months ago, we learned that one of the characters in the film was named Captain Phasma by director J.J. Abrams in homage to the horror classic PHANTASM. Phasma is just the latest tie to bind Abrams and PHANTASM; in the past he has also cast actor Angus Scrimm (the villainous Tall Man) on his TV show Alias and was briefly in the running to direct a PHANTASM remake for New Line Cinema a decade ago.
Phasma won't be Abrams' last connection to PHANTASM, either. It has been revealed by Quint over at Ain't It Cool that the filmmaker's production company Bad Robot is currently working on a complete 4K restoration of the movie from the original camera negative.
According to Quint, this is part of the reason why we still haven't seen the long-awaited sequel PHANTASM: RAVAGER yet, because PHANTASM creator Don Coscarelli is making the restoration of the first film his primary focus at the moment.
Made by Coscarelli when he was in his early twenties, for a budget of around $300,000, PHANTASM is one of the genre's all-time greats. If you haven't watched it yet, I highly recommend that you do so as soon as possible, although I would understand wanting to wait for this 4K restoration to be your first exposure to the film. It's going to be fantastic to see it all cleaned up.