I was on my way to a double feature screening of Don Coscarelli's John Dies at the End and Phantasm last night, when I stopped at a comic book shop to browse for a few minutes. Looking through the store's back issues of Epic Illustrated, I noted this issue featuring a story by Roger Zelazny:
I haven't read any Zelazny, but his name is familiar to me from seeing it on the billing block for Damnation Alley, which is based upon his novel of the same name.
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As for Phantasm, I've seen it countless times, but never on 35mm. Granted, the print was scratchy, pink, and faded, but it still offered clarity beyond a conventional DVD and television set-up. So, turning my head sideways, during the below scene, I could read the text on the cover of the book on Mike's desk: Roger Zelazny, My Name is Legion. Checking the Phantasm Wiki page afterwards, I saw that this product placement had previously been noted there. But, for me, this is another of those odd, movie coincidences that I--and I'm sure many other film-obsessed sorts--seem to experience on a regular basis. I can only guess that Coscarelli or another member of the crew was a fan of Zelazny and perhaps this book in particular.
I haven't read any Zelazny, but his name is familiar to me from seeing it on the billing block for Damnation Alley, which is based upon his novel of the same name.
.jpg)
As for Phantasm, I've seen it countless times, but never on 35mm. Granted, the print was scratchy, pink, and faded, but it still offered clarity beyond a conventional DVD and television set-up. So, turning my head sideways, during the below scene, I could read the text on the cover of the book on Mike's desk: Roger Zelazny, My Name is Legion. Checking the Phantasm Wiki page afterwards, I saw that this product placement had previously been noted there. But, for me, this is another of those odd, movie coincidences that I--and I'm sure many other film-obsessed sorts--seem to experience on a regular basis. I can only guess that Coscarelli or another member of the crew was a fan of Zelazny and perhaps this book in particular.
2 comments:
The Phantasm novelization mentions Mike reading Zelazny, so it must have been Coscarelli's idea rather than art department. I read the novel of Damnation Alley and it's very different from the movie. Instead of a team of rag-tag post-apocalyptic survivors, it's about the last Hell's Angel in America making a suicide mission across the country to deliver a vaccine. It's kind of like The Dirty Dozen, in that the prisoner is given a parole if he takes the doomed mission. What struck me when I read the book is that it had to have inspired Snake Plissken.
Fascinating tidbits there, thanks Kevin.
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