The Phantom Needs to be Revived

The kids that grew up in the 80’s and 90’s were pretty spoiled, at least when it comes to the big screen. We’ve seen some of our favorite childhood television shows become blockbusters as live-action films year after year. However, there are still a few cult classics that deserve a remake, right?

One such film, in my opinion, is the 1996 masterpiece, The Phantom. This action-adventure thriller takes place in 1938 in New York City (mostly) where we meet Kit Walker (Billy Zane), the 21st iteration of the Phantom or “The Ghost Who Walks”. He’s charged with the protection of a mysterious island, but by extension, the world! Out to ruin the day is power-hungry mercenary Quill (James Remar). His plan is to unite the three skulls of Touganda and achieve unlimited power. Along the way, Kit is reunited with an old flame, Diana Palmer (Kristy Swanson), and a femme fatale in Sala (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Sure, the plot is overly predictable, but that’s what makes it great.

To be certain, this movie was an absolute flop at the box office. It only brought in about $17 million and the film itself cost about $45 million to make. The intended follow up, Mandrake the Magician, was never realized and it suffered the same way two other period pulp pieces, The Shadow (1994) and The Rocketeer (1991). However, there were rumors that it was possibly going to be rebooted back in 2008 due to the strong VHS and DVD sales of the original. Sadly, they were only rumors, and nothing ever came of it. Fortunately for main actor Billy Zane, director James Cameron liked his performance so much, he was later hired to be in Titanic.

So, why exactly do I think this movie should be rebooted? For staters, I am completely biased, so there may not be too many sound reasons. With that said, as more and more films incorporate darker tones, a throwback like The Phantom would be a nice change of pace. Even the upcoming movies that don’t look like they’ll be dark and gloomy are heading into space and perhaps time travel.

There definitely is room for a noire, old-school thriller that doesn’t need to rely heavily on CGI. I don’t have that most creative mind, but a little update here and there to make the movie slightly more modern would go a long way in breathing new life into this timeless hero. Besides, it seems that Hollywood has taken a keen liking to reboots as of late, and with something like The Phantom, it might be a cheaper ‘superhero’ film they could get behind without spending as much money as they would making say, the next Batman film.

What are some of your childhood favorites that you wish would get a reboot? Please leave them in the comment section.