Here’s some news likely to get fans of Phantasm excited – Reggie Bannister may be giving up ice cream slinging and dwarf killing for directing. In an interview with my pal Daniel Robert Epstein over at reallyscary.com, Bannister reveals some of his future plans.
RS: Do you have any desire to write and direct films?
Reggie: As a matter of fact I’m trying to get a project mounted right now. I had a script written a few years ago with some friends of mine. I gave them names of certain actors that I wanted to be a part of this project and so they wrote out those parts with those actors in mind. So it looks like we might be able to get that up and running. We’ll keep our fingers crossed because we hope to get that running in the first quarter of 2006.
RS: What’s it about?
Reggie: It’s called Worst Fears. It starts off in the ’70s and it focuses on a young boy and his brother. Then it leaps into present day and has to do with the building of a haunted attraction and as they’re building the attraction some very unusual things begin happening. You can’t really tie it to one certain thing that’s going on because each person’s experience is very individual and very personal. I like pictures like that such as Polanski’s Repulsion. Angel Heart, Memento and Fight Club. I like pictures that are psychologically frustrating for the observer.
There’s no irony in this next statement: I love that Reggie Bannister name drops Polanski as an influence.