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The Intellectual Property That Cannot Die

By | Posted Under Trailers | Comments (19)

Billy-Zane-6400413.jpg

The Phantom began life as a comic strip in 1936. To put it in perspective, that’s old enough to have influenced Batman. And, despite the flop starring Billy Zane, The SyFy Channel believes that people are still interested enough to watch a miniseries about the character.
(Quick Note: Was that a flop? I never hear anyone talking about it but I remember renting it from Blockbuster as a lad. Even back then I may have thought it was boring.)
So the SyFy Channel is taking a big risk here, there are ZERO giant animals in this trailer. Heck, there’s not even a purple onesie with a black domino mask. It’s not very “Phantom”-y but maybe that’s a good thing. Check it out, yo.

The Phantom will be played by Ryan Carnes and I believe his opposition will be Cas Anvar. I don’t believe either of those names mean anything. The lead actor doesn’t even have a picture on IMDB.

OK, in the interest of inflating my comment numbers, what character (I’m thinking in the vein of old comics like this, but anything could work) would you be happy to never see again? I wanted to say Marmaduke, but I have to go with Garfield. I don’t want to see his comic strip in my Sunday Funnies, I don’t want to see his movies on Starz, I don’t even want to see him on my Meijer brand applesauce. That might be a regional reference.

(via Sci Fi Wire)









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Comments

dude... I LOVED the Billy Zane Phantom... it was god awful trash but it was AWESOME god awful trash... plus... it had a 27 year old Catherine Zeta-Jones... ROWR!

Posted by: Tammers at June 11, 2010 6:21 PM

also... No Smoking in the Skull Cave!

I STILL say that...

Posted by: Tammers at June 11, 2010 6:21 PM

The one thing I always remember about the Phantom movie with Billy Zane is the hilarious closed-captioning. I have a tendency to mis-hear things and also to watch TV late at night (lifelong insomniac here) when I can't turn the volume up too loud, so I keep CC on by default. I find some hysterical

So there's one part in that movie where the wolf and the horse are communicating amongst themselves to save the Phantom. The wolf barks to the horse, the horse neighs. NORMALLY, CC at this point would say something like "[wolf barks] [horse neighs]" so that's what I was expecting. What did I get?

[woof]
[neigh]

I still tell people about it to this day. As I am here right now. It really is the stupid little things in life that amuse me the most. (Another movie with choice CC? The Tuxedo, with Jackie Chan, which has oddly genre-specific musical descriptions.)

Posted by: Nat Kittyface at June 11, 2010 6:27 PM

Peanuts needs to be retired. Desperately! Right now it's being recycled as Charles Shultz died years ago.

Also, Family Circus can go away and I wouldn't be bothered.

And take Fred Basset with you!

Damned kids!

Posted by: UncleJR at June 11, 2010 7:03 PM

Come on, Skiffy, you couldn't at least make the Splinter Cell ripped off outfit, like, really dark purple? I mean, you're SyFy, it's a SyFy movie-- the game's pretty much over right there. You could've gone full on purple unitard and not been appreciably worse off.

And The Phantom was the bomb, yo.

Posted by: Ryan at June 11, 2010 7:32 PM

The quaility looks surprising good for something from SyFy (damn how I hate that name. Sometimes I change channels just so I don't have to see it on the screen).

I would vote to permanently retire The Fantastic Four. Permanent being at least 20 years.

Posted by: EricD at June 11, 2010 8:20 PM

Snore. I'm not bothering with The Phantom unless he kicks giant pyrhannas in the head.

Posted by: BWeaves at June 11, 2010 8:33 PM

I'm going to second the Fantastic Four. Their little family dynamic superhero as corporation weirdness is just boring. Plus the ability to stretch, while pretty useless for crimefighting means Mr. Fantastic probably rarely leaves the lab.

Posted by: mrcreosote at June 11, 2010 8:48 PM

The Phantom was awesome because it had Treat Williams as the villain. He was born to ham it up in movies like that.

Posted by: Craig at June 11, 2010 8:57 PM

I saw that movie when I was 11, and the scene where the guy gets his eyes stabbed by the little knives in the microscope is literally the only thing I remember. Scared the shit out of me.

Posted by: badkittyuno at June 11, 2010 10:38 PM

One of the "features" on Yahoo today was a serious discussion about which mental disorder Darth Vader may have suffered. I mean, there are real scientists arguing about what Vader did to his son and daughter, and what his actions might indicate about his state of mind. They were MOVIES, folks. George Lucas was pulling stuff out of his ass and has coyly admitted as much. Just let all the Star Wars characters die already (except for the Robot Chicken parodies, of course; they're hilarious.)

Way to become popular, Creep.

Posted by: Uriah Creep at June 11, 2010 11:21 PM

Well according to IMDB The Phantom only grossed $17.3 Million in its 2 month run in the states. Considering it had a budget of $45 million, I'd say that was a flop.

Posted by: DeistBrawler at June 12, 2010 12:12 AM

Not a fan of the goofy costume.

This though, is pretty badass.

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/Ross-Dynamite-Phantom-100507.html

Posted by: Ken Hart at June 12, 2010 1:27 AM

I adored the campy, ridiculous version of The Phantom with Billy Zane. I know, I know, I'm a fool for loving it.

Anyway, I'd be happy if no one ever mentioned Dennis the Menace again. There shouldn't be ocmic books, t.v. shows or movies featuring that annoying little brat unless it's called, like, Mr. Wilson's Revenge!

Posted by: SCannakate at June 12, 2010 1:33 AM

How has no one mentioned that Isabella Rosselini is in this?! Also this looks really bad. Oh Isabella...

Posted by: Mona at June 12, 2010 4:21 AM

If I recall correctly, Billy Zane was just coming off the Titanic publicity juggernaut, and it was widely thought that he was the coming heartthrob. At least, that's what People and its ilk were saying at the time. Phantom pretty much put that notion to rest.

Posted by: PDamian at June 12, 2010 11:40 AM

i watched the billy Zane Phantom i watched the cartoon phantom i loved both i too watch movies with closed captioning i want to make sure i pronounce certain words right.

Posted by: Utah Dynamo at June 12, 2010 2:28 PM

Ryan Carnes was in the gay comedy "Eating Out," which was actually pretty decent. Also was Bree's son's lover in the first season on "Desperate Housewives."

Posted by: kilmo at June 12, 2010 3:39 PM

If you have to ask, it probably was a flop.

Posted by: Faye at June 12, 2010 7:24 PM