$87 million sequel to THE PHANTOM?

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

Now usually I take everything I hear from The Associated Press with a massive grain of salt but they have script writer and producer quotes, and well you just can't ignore that kind of source. Unless they have totally made up a story then there has to be some truth to this. According to producer Bruce Sherlock and screenwriter Tim Boyle, an Australian production company have secured the rights to the Phantom series and areset to make a $87 million budgeted sequel to the 1996 superhero flop THE PHANTOM which starred Billy Zane and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Sherlock was executive producer on the original film. The sequel will be titled THE PHANTOM LEGACY...

The latest adaptation, which is expected to cost $87 million, will focus on "the Father/Son relationship, and what it means to be The Phantom," scriptwriter Tim Boyle said in a statement. "The film will be set in the present day and will deal with the concept of destiny." "It has the makings of a blockbuster," Sherlock told The Associated Press. "There's some surprises that will thrill the Phantom fans worldwide." Sherlock's Sydney-based Sherlock Symington Productions won the rights to the film.

The movie is expected to be shot in Australia and will begin filming within the next six to nine months with the producers on the hunt for an Australian or American actor to play the lead. The original was a disaster of epic proportions, just one of the many superhero mis-fires of the 9o's...

THE PHANTOM dates back to a daily newspaper comic book strip created by Lee Falk in 1937. It featured Kit Walker as the 21st in a family legacy of crime fighting masked heroes who worked from a jungle headquarters. One would think this will be a complete reboot (not that many people remember the original anyway) rather than a sequel.