The legend of "The Phantom" began four hundred years ago when a small boy witnessed his father's savage murder at sea by pirates of the Sengh Brotherhood. Washed ashore near the Bengalla Jungle, the boy swore an oath of vengeance -- to fight piracy, cruelty and injustice in all its forms. That boy became the first Phantom, creating a sacred tradition passed down from father to son over twenty generations. No one understood how The Phantom survived the centuries unchanged, and so believed him to be immortal.
They dubbed him "The Ghost Who Walks."
Set in a romantic time when anything seemed possible, Paramount Pictures' "The Phantom" brings Lee Falk's internationally acclaimed comic strip superhero to the screen in an electrifying blend of swashbuckling high adventure and escapist fun certain to appeal to audiences seeking a change from the brooding, troubled anti-heroes of today.
Deep in the jungled island of Bengalla lie two centuries-old secrets the outer world only suspects exist. The Skulls of Touganda--one of gold, another of silver, and the third of rare black jade -- are ancient relics of incalculable value, and even more incalculable power. According to legend, they harbor an energy source one thousand times greater than anything known to civilized man. If they can be unearthed from their scattered hiding places and brought together by some resourceful person, they will confer ultimate power upon him.
The ruthless Xander Drax, and the blood-thirsty Pirates of the Sengh Brotherhood, seek to control the Skulls. But their quest for unbridled power takes them into the mysterious jungle domain of Bengalla's other legend -- a masked figure of mystery, garbed in purple, who for over 400 years has served as protector and avenger of jungle folk. Believed immortal by natives and dismissed as a myth by outsiders, he is both feared and respected as the Ghost Who Walks -- The Phantom!
The Phantom patrols his jungle realm astride a white stallion named Hero and assisted by a fierce gray wolf appropriately named Devil. Little is known of him, except this: The Phantom has sworn to fight piracy on land and sea, and he holds a deadly grudge against the Sengh Brotherhood that stretches back four centuries -- a grudge that puts him on an unavoidable collision course with Drax and his pirate allies.
Filmed in Hollywood, on breathtaking locations in southeastern Thailand, and on elaborate sound stages in Queensland, Australia, "The Phantom" stars Billy Zane and is directed by Simon Wincer from a screenplay by Jeffrey Boam. Treat Williams, Kristy Swanson, Catherine Zeta Jones, James Remar, Jon Tenney, Samantha Eggar and Patrick McGoohan star opposite Zane. Alan Ladd, Jr. and Robert Evans produce the Village Roadshow Pictures and Ladd Company Presentation of a Robert Evans Production of a Simon Wincer Film.
The executive producers are Richard Vane and Village Roadshow's Graham Burke, Greg Coote, Peter Sjoquist and Bruce Sherlock. The co-producer is Jeffrey Boam, and the associate producer is Bonnie Abaunza. "The Phantom" is a presentation of the Motion Picture Group of Paramount Pictures, part of the entertainment operations of Viacom Inc.
Billy Zane stars as Kit Walker, the latest in the long line of two-fisted swashbucklers who carry on the Walker family tradition by assuming the purple regalia of his ancestors upon the death of the previous Phantom -- thus perpetuating the myth of the immortal Ghost Who Walks. Director Simon Wincer, who previously directed a string of successful action films ("Free Willy," "Operation Dumbo Drop," as well as "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" and "Lonesome Dove" for television) says of his lead, "Billy Zane really seems to be the perfect actor to play 'The Phantom.' He plays the role with great dignity and humor."
Treat Williams is The Phantom's chief adversary, Drax, while Kristy Swanson assumes the role Diana Palmer, the free-spirited adventuress who is also the long-time love of Kit Walker, the alter ego of The Phantom.
Catherine Zeta Jones plays the sultry aviatrix-turned-pirate, Sala. Other members of the cast include James Remar as murderous Drax henchman, Quill; Jon Tenney as playboy Jimmy Wells, The Phantom's rival for the affections of Diana Palmer; Samantha Eggar as Diana's society hostess mother and Patrick McGoohan as The Phantom's father.
"The Phantom" is inspired by the King Features comic strip created in 1936 by cartoonist-writer Lee Falk that continues to appear in over 500 newspapers daily, as it has for the last sixty years. Premiering in the New York Journal American, The Phantom took newspaper readers by storm. Nothing remotely like the costumed avenger of wrongs had ever appeared in print prior to the Phantom's debut. This was before Superman, before Batman, before the word superhero had even entered the language. This was something completely new.
From that one newspaper, the Phantom grew into the most successful adventure strip of all time, becoming a global marketing phenomenon that now spans 25 languages. Mr. Falk's internationally-syndicated hero is currently read by 100 million people in 40 countries each day, making The Phantom one of the most recognizable superheroes on the planet. In Norway, an entire amusement park, Phantomland, is dedicated to the Ghost Who Walks and his unique world.
As created by Mr. Falk, The Phantom is the living embodiment of justice and vengeance. The modern Phantom is the 21st in a line that stretches back to the first Kit Walker who swore a grim oath on the skull of his father's murderer. The Oath of the Skull. The oath all succeeding Phantoms swear, whether they brandish flintlock pistols or Colt .45 automatics. On Bengalla Island, there is only one law: The Phantom's law... and one lawman, whose true name no one has ever learned.
Director Simon Wincer admits to having been an avid reader of The Phantom comics as a boy growing up in Australia, where in addition to the daily newspaper strip, a million-selling Phantom comic book was published every week.
"'The Phantom' comics always had a kind of good old-fashioned adventure," he says. "They had a quality about them with an exotic time and settings. It was action-adventure with a twinkle in the eye."
Determined to remain faithful to The Phantom's original milieu, Wincer strove to recreate a more innocent era in which faraway lands and their unknown mysteries were a siren's call to explorers of that day. Recognizing the high expectations of present-day audiences, he integrated stunning state-of-the-art visual effects and heart-stopping stunt work into an imaginative interpretation of the fast-paced Jeffrey Boam ("Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," "Lethal Weapon 2" & "3") script.
Wincer sees "The Phantom" as an excursion into sheer escapist entertainment.
"The film is very visual, glamorous, and exotic," he notes. "New York in the late 1930s; women in beautiful gowns at Long Island cocktail parties; days of traveling by Pam Am Clippers; the richness of adventure in lush jungles. It was a time when going to any part of the world outside America was a great adventure."
Adventure also describes the director's challenge in bringing a larger-than-life character to the screen in a worthy backdrop.
"There were all sorts of huge logistics associated with the film as we moved around the world to different locations and captured them on film," says Wincer. "But it's all part of the scope of 'The Phantom.' He was really the originator of those cliffhanger serials, and inspired the Indiana Jones movies. He had the classic, good-triumphs-over-evil kind of themes. We had to come up with situations that were highly unusual and original, keeping it within the confines of what people expect of 'The Phantom,' while not overlooking an even broader audience who hadn't grown up with him.
"Jeffrey Boam wrote the screenplay very much with humor in mind," Wincer adds. "While it's not a comedy, there's some quite funny situations. I think that's what makes it appealing. It doesn't take itself too seriously."
The screenplay is based upon the first two Phantom story newspaper serials published in 1936, "The Sengh Brotherhood" and "The Sky Band." So it was only fitting that creator Lee Falk was invited to Australia to watch his sixty-year-old story being filmed, which he did in January, 1996.
"It was very exciting to see my people come to life," Falk says with his genteel old-world manner. "They brought together a marvelous group of actors. It was wonderful to see Billy Zane play The Phantom."
While on set, Falk regaled cast and crew alike with anecdotes about his famous creation. Of particular interest was the story of how Falk, just out of college, came up with one of the most successful adventure characters of the 20th century.
"I loved the stories of Greek and Roman gods," he recalled, "and heroic men of justice. The Phantom came out of all that, except he was different. He had no special powers, but he was physical and strong. He was deadeye with his guns, but in sixty years he's never shot anybody. He uses his wiles and his fists to good effect."
Falk revealed that the striking color of the Phantom's costume came about by accident. It was supposed to be gray because at one early point Falk considered calling his creation The Gray Ghost.
"They didn't get the color specifications and he ended up in purple running around a green jungle," he revealed. "I was thinking of some kind of camouflage. Actually, for years The Phantom was in crimson red in Europe. They just got black and white proofs and didn't know what to do."
An even more startling anecdote concerns the character of Jimmy Wells, who appears in the film. In the early days of "The Phantom" strip Falk planned to lead up to the revelation that The Ghost Who Walks was really playboy Jimmy Wells. Before he reached this part of the story, Falk got a better idea, discarded Wells and moved the strip from Manhattan to the fictitious island of Bengalla. And so was born the true legend of The Phantom.
Falk tells of underground resistance movements which used "The Phantom" as a password. "It happened in Norway during the Nazi occupation of World War II," he recalls. "And also in Argentina and Haiti during times of struggle. The Phantom was a role model because of his fight against injustice and he was seen in places where there was no justice."
One of the deepest mysteries and most-asked questions about the Phantom concern his two rings. On his right hand, the Ghost Who Walks wears the Skull Ring, which leaves a mark on wrongdoers that can never be removed. On his left is the Good Mark Ring, consisting of a Maltese cross forged from four letter P's. When imprinted on a person's skin, it warns evildoers that that person is under the protection of the Phantom and inviolate.
"People have asked me," Falk relates, "'What kind of ring is it that leaves a skull mark that can never be removed?'" Falk answers the oft-asked question with a chuckle and a knowing glint in his eye: "That's the Phantom's secret."
Operating from the Skull Throne in the Skull Cave nestled in the inaccessible Deep Woods, The Phantom is known only to faithful Guran, chief of the Bandar tribe; Hero, his magnificent Arabian stallion; and to Devil, his pet wolf. Even the loyal men of the Jungle Patrol, the paramilitary peacekeeping force an earlier Phantom organized generations before, have never seen the face of their mysterious commander-in-chief.
St. Louis-born Lee Falk was attending the University of Illinois when he created his first comic strip hero for William Randolph Hearst's King Features Syndicate in the summer of 1934. "Mandrake the Magician" became an instant international sensation. Recognizing Falk's talent, the syndicate asked him to come up with another hero. And so was born The Phantom.
An inexhaustible storyteller, Falk soon relinquished drawing The Phantom to concentrate on scripting. Not even the interruption of World War II and classified work with the U.S. Army and the Office of War Information caused him to miss a single deadline. Falk estimates he has written over 600 Phantom adventures over the last half century -- a comic strip record that will never be equaled, much less surpassed.
Ironically, Falk's strips may have contributed to the war effort as much as the writer's own patriotic wartime duties. In occupied Europe, Nazi propagandists published false accounts of the bombing of New York City and the imminent collapse of America. Unwittingly, they failed to censor the Phantom strips smuggled in and published by the underground. The continued existence of The Phantom proved that America had not fallen, giving hope and encouragement to oppressed peoples in several beleaguered countries.
After the war, Falk channeled his boundless creative energies to playwriting and directing regional theatre. His credits include over a dozen produced plays. He operates theatres in Massachusetts and the Bahamas, and has produced and directed literally hundreds of professional plays. When not traveling the world, Falk and his wife, Elizabeth, herself a theatrical producer, divide their time between a spacious Manhattan apartment overlooking Central Park and Cape Cod. Astonishingly, the prolific Falk still finds the time to guide the destinies of The Phantom and Mandrake through their daily adventures. This from a man who readily admits that he never expected either strip to last more than a few years.
"I've been fortunate to have had a lifetime of theatre along with my cartoon work," Falk acknowledges.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
"Phantom" filming began on October 3, 1995 in Los Angeles at the famous Greystone Park. The former Beverly Hills estate of the esteemed Doheny family was transformed into the palatial Long Island residence of Diane Palmer. It is where we first encounter Diana (Kristy Swanson) returning home from a Yukon expedition during one of her mother's elegant high society parties.
Continuing the Long Island scenes elsewhere in Beverly Hills, director Simon Wincer chose for the exterior of the Palmer's English-style manor the mansion of Playboy magazine's Hugh Hefner. Never before filmed without being identified as the Playboy Mansion, Hefner allowed filming of "The Phantom" only because he was a long-time fan of the comic strip.
Other Los Angeles filming took place in The Port of San Pedro, where a Beechcraft D-18 floatplane, specially flown in from Canada, was retrofitted by the art department into the vintage seaplane of Xander Drax (Treat Williams, himself a pilot in real life). Subsequently, the Beechcraft was crated and freighted to Thailand for aerial work, along with a matched pair of Grumman AG-Cats which served as the blood-red fighter planes captained by Sala (Catherine Zeta Jones) and her band of female air pirates.
The Los Angeles Zoo in Griffith Park doubled for New York City's Central Park Zoo, the setting for a wild chase sequence where The Phantom eludes pursuers on a stolen police horse and is forced to make his escape through a tiger's cage.
Shooting continued on Hollywood studio backlot streets dressed to recreate 1930s New York. More than 50 vintage cars were used on the streets, and incorporated into a gripping horseback ride through busy mid-town Manhattan traffic. Nearly 400 extras costumed in authentic period styles were employed for these night scenes.
In late October, cast and production crew traveled to Thailand for what would be an adventurous seven weeks of filming. Routing was arduous and circuitous, with personnel and tons of equipment passing through Bangkok for connecting flights to Phuket Island, over five hundred miles to the south. Phuket, in the turquoise Andaman Sea, is a paradise of long white sandy beaches, cliff-sheltered coves, jeweled waters and brilliant fiery sunsets. It would become, through the joint creative efforts of director Wincer and production designer Paul Peters, the absolute embodiment of "The Phantom's" Bengalla Jungle.
Thai filming began near Krabi, the provincial capital of the region, a two hour island drive from Phuket. Chosen as base of operations for the production, the town of Krabi, once a safe haven for smugglers and pirates from Malaysia, is now a quiet fishing port boasting hotels and tourist facilities, with access to the province's many spectacular islands and beaches, notably Phang Nga Bay, featured in the James Bond film, "The Man With the Golden Gun."
Hundreds of isolated limestone cliff islands dot the Andaman Sea between Krabi and Phuket. Jutting to heights of up to nine hundred feet above the tranquil blue water, they were selected for their unparalleled, almost otherworldly beauty. Filming took place on three idyllic islands, Ko Hong Island and the uninhabited Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Lae isles. To reach these areas the entire cast and production crew had to travel by large ferry boat, with trucks and equipment packed on barges, then be transported by smaller craft to hidden caves and stretches of unspoiled beach such as Ko Hong Island where the Phantom shows Diana his "Golden Beach of Keela-Wee" on their romantic tour of the isle of Bengalla.
Four national parks surrounding Krabi, each abundant in waterfalls and natural caves, hosted outdoor photography. Their profuse and unusual tropical vegetation helped filmmakers capture the heart of The Phantom's lush jungle domain. These settings included the Crypt Cave where Drax's men find the first of the Skulls of Touganda; the startling entrance to the Phantom's Skull Cave; the compound of the Jungle Patrol; the native ceremonial village seen in the film's opening moments; the tree-top village of the Rope People; and the gorge where the production team constructed the 100-foot span of rope suspension bridge for one of the film's most spectacular action scenes.
Turning to interior settings, production designer Paul Peters transformed a deserted warehouse on Krabi's river into a massive sound stage. It was here that The Phantom's mysterious Skull Cave abode was erected, including his Chronicle Chamber, crypt burial vault, radio and treasure rooms, and imposing Skull Throne.
"The Phantom" production moved temporarily back to Phuket Island for several days filming of floatplane and freighter sequences at Panwa Bay's scenic Deep Water Harbor. They returned to Krabi to complete the island sequences, and the difficult and dangerous rope suspension bridge stunt.
Simon Wincer reflects thoughtfully when he recalls the latter. "It was the hardest location to find because we needed to build a rickety bridge between two high cliffs across which we could drive an old truck. It gets trapped in the middle, tangled in vines and the bridge actually tips the truck upside down. The Phantom saves a small boy before everything collapses and falls into the gorge 500 feet below."
Wincer adds, "The special effects and engineering was an enormous task. The sequence was plotted on storyboards and rehearsed over and over by the stunt coordinator. It became one of our biggest nightmares because we didn't know if it was going to be ready due to unpredictable weather. It took eleven weeks to work out the mechanics of the bridge and it had to be approved by safety experts and government officials. It was a most complex stunt in a part of the world where these things don't happen overnight.
"The final shot is basically the Phantom and the boy swinging to safety, the truck falling and the bridge collapsing, and multiple cameras squinting from every angle. It was most spectacular."
In mid-December the crew traveled to Brisbane, Australia. The final leg of the journey took "The Phantom" production an hour south to Warner Roadshow Movie World Studios, a modern complex of six sound stages and comprehensive production facilities adjacent to a popular theme park on Queensland's Gold Coast.
It was here, at the largest studio in the southern hemisphere, that major production was completed. "The Phantom" filmed on three stages, including massive Stage 5 which had a removable floor and deep-water tanks. Every foot of the stage's 22,800 square feet was filled with construction for the Sengh Pirates Cave, constituting the largest interior setting ever built in Australia.
The sprawling cave set encompassed dimensions of 200 feet in length and more than 50 feet above the stage floor. Automated wave makers created the illusion of troubled waters in the set's permanent deep-water tank. The art department provided sharks moving on specially built underwater tracks for an added touch of menace. The rear deck of a Chinese junk was made into the seat of the Great Kabai Sengh (played by Cary-Hiroyuka Tagawa), and strewn with grisly trophies suggesting past buccaneer raids. Behind ornate gates lies the watery cave entrance.
A maze of chambers and secret passages, the corsair stronghold also featured a torpedo room dominated by an armed two-man submarine set in a giant launching turntable. The arrival of Drax, Diana, Sala and their cohorts, followed by the Phantom's sudden appearance, sets the stage for a climactic duel between the pirates and the Great Kabai Sengh, leading to the shattering confrontation between the Phantom and Xander Drax over control of the all-powerful Skulls of Touganda.
Upon the completion of photography with the principal actors, the cave setting succumbed to its scripted screen demise in a series of controlled explosions augmented by cascading water effects over three exacting days of filming.
Another impressive setting was the plush New York offices of the nefarious Xander Drax, constructed next door on Stage 6. Complete with detailed Art Deco trim, the office complex included elevator shafts, hallways and waiting room, conference room, and Drax's high-ceilinged inner office with its large picture windows overlooking a period New York City skyline.
Other filming in Queensland took "The Phantom" to the italianate Brisbane City Hall, one of Australia's largest municipal buildings. The interior lobby was redecorated to evoke a New York museum where The Phantom (in mufti as Kit Walker) discovers one of the Skulls of Touganda. Drax's unexpected entrance and his meshing of the mystical Skulls leads to a fantastic showdown of pyrotechnic havoc and destruction.
The final day's shooting on "The Phantom" relocated to Los Angeles. Ironically, the scene had been filmed in Thailand but a "wrestling" lion was needed for a reverse shot involving The Phantom and Diana Palmer.
The only animal trained for this type of work, a 13-year old African lion named "Sudan," happened to be busy in South Africa appearing in another Paramount film, "The Ghost and the Darkness." Simon Wincer had to wait patiently until Sudan returned to Hollywood before he could complete the last day's work on "The Phantom."
In a final irony, "The Phantom" ultimately wrapped on February 13, 1996 -- almost sixty years to the day the famous character first appeared in print. As an omen of good fortune, it was the next best thing to having the production stamped by the Good Mark of the Ghost Who Walks himself...
