List of The Phantom (film) characters

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The following is an overview of the characters depicted in the 1996 live-action film adaptation of The Phantom comic strip series.

Contents

Kit Walker/The Phantom

Director Simon Wincer cast Billy Zane, who had recently won praise for his work as a psychopath in Dead Calm , as the Phantom. Zane, a fan of the comic strip after being introduced to it on the set of Dead Calm, [1] won the part after competition from Bruce Campbell and actor Kevin Smith. Zane was already a huge fan of the comic strip since being introduced to Australian Frew comics on the set of Dead Calm. He ended up getting the part after actively lobbying for it for years. After his casting, he feverishly pumped iron for over a year and a half to get the right muscular look of the Phantom. He also studied the character's body language in comic strip artwork, carefully imitating it in his performance. [2] A Batman-like costume with moulded muscles was made for him to wear, but by the time filming started, Zane was so beefed up that he did not need it.

Supporting characters

Falkmoore

The Palmers' butler is named Falkmoore (played by Bernard Kates). This name is derived from Lee Falk, the creator of The Phantom, and Ray Moore, The Phantom's first artist.

Guran

In the 1996 The Phantom film, Guran makes a brief appearance played by Radmar Agana Jao. In this version he is much younger than the Phantom, and is portrayed as an Asian, rather than African as he is in the comics. He also wears a turban and a more traditional set of clothing, rather than his strange hat and unique dress sense in the comic.

Captain Philip Horton

Though Capt. Philip Horton (played by Robert Coleby) appears to be the leader of the Jungle Patrol, but is actually the Phantom that leads them. This is because the Patrol was started by an earlier Phantom to protect the jungle when he is not there. This is one of the most heavily guarded secrets of the Jungle Patrol. [3]

Diana Palmer

In 1996, Kristy Swanson portrayed her in Paramount's big budget film The Phantom , featuring Billy Zane as The Phantom. Diana is here sent out by her uncle Dave, in the film a wealthy newspaper publisher, to Bangalla to help with the search of a fabled weapon of doom, the Skulls of Touganda. When she is trapped by the henchmen of bad guy Xander Drax, she is saved by the Phantom, who, unbeknownst to her is really her college boyfriend, Kit Walker. Towards the end of the film (according to the novelisation), she works out the Phantom's true identity based on the fact that he appeared just after Kit disappeared.

Jimmy Wells

Jon Tenney has a small part as Jimmy Wells, a wealthy playboy who appeared in a similar role in The Singh Brotherhood.

Villains

Xander Drax

The film featured the Phantom in his attempt to stop madman Xander Drax (Treat Williams) from obtaining a weapon of doom, the legendary "Skulls of Touganda".

Quill

The more realistic plots of Lee Falk's original stories were dropped in favour of an adventure tale that featured the supernatural Skulls of Touganda. Falk's story The Belt, where the Phantom fights the killer of his father, was also a major influence on the story. However, the name of the murderer is changed from Rama to Quill (played by James Remar), and the 20th Phantom, played by Patrick McGoohan, is portrayed as a much older man in the film than he was in the comic strip.

Singh Brotherhood

The film features several elements from Lee Falk's first two Phantom stories, The Singh Brotherhood and The Sky Band. [4] The Singh Brotherhood was rechristened to the Sengh Brotherhood (the name of the brotherhood was changed from Singh to Sengh in the movie, to avoid offending people named Singh) in Paramount's 1996 film Phantom . Their leader, Kabai Sengh, was played by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. The Sengh Brotherhood is a fraternity of pirates, who are held to be the killers of the first Phantom's father.

Sky Band

Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Sala, leader of the Sky Band, a group of female criminal air pirates.

Related Research Articles

Phantom may refer to:

<i>The Phantom</i> Comic strip

The Phantom is an American adventure comic strip, first published by Lee Falk in February 1936. The main character, the Phantom, is a fictional costumed crime-fighter who operates from the fictional African country of Bangalla. The character has been adapted for television, film and video games.

Billy Zane American actor (born 1966)

William George Zane Jr., also known as Billy Zane, is an American actor. His breakthrough role was in the 1989 Australian film Dead Calm, a performance that earned him a nomination for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actor. He has since appeared in numerous films and television series, notably playing Caledon Hockley in the epic romance disaster film Titanic (1997), for which he was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award.

<i>Mandrake the Magician</i> Comic strip created by Lee Falk

Mandrake the Magician is a syndicated newspaper comic strip, created by Lee Falk before he created The Phantom. Mandrake began publication on June 11, 1934. Phil Davis soon took over as the strip's illustrator, while Falk continued to script. The strip was distributed by King Features Syndicate.

Lee Falk American comics writer

Lee Falk, born Leon Harrison Gross, was an American cartoonist, writer, theater director, and producer, best known as the creator of the comic strips Mandrake the Magician and The Phantom. At the height of their popularity, these strips attracted over 100 million readers every day. Falk also wrote short stories, and he contributed to a series of paperback novels about The Phantom.

Bangalla, also known as Bengalla, is a fictional African country that features in the Lee Falk created comic strip The Phantom. Bangalla is the home of the Phantom, who resides in the Deep Woods of the jungle in the fabled Skull Cave. Until the 1960s, the country was portrayed as being in Asia, near India. In the 1996 film, Bengalla is located in Asia instead of Africa. In the 2009 miniseries, Bangalla is a fictional small island nation located in the Malay Archipelago.

Ryan Carnes American actor

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Elasti-Girl

Elasti-Girl is a fictional comic book superheroine appearing in books published by DC Comics, primarily as a member of the Doom Patrol. Created by writer Arnold Drake and artist Bruno Premiani, the character first appeared in My Greatest Adventure #80.

Ace Comics was a comic book series published by David McKay Publications between 1937 and 1949 — starting just before the Golden Age of Comic Books. The title reprinted syndicated newspaper strips owned by King Features Syndicate, following the successful formula of a mix of adventure and humor strips introduced by McKay in their King Comics title in April 1936; some of the strips were transferred from King Comics and continued in Ace Comics from issue #1. Ace Comics #11, the first appearance of The Phantom, is regarded by many to be a key issue in the history of comics, as it introduced to the comics format one of the first of the costumed heroes, leading to the Golden Age of superheroes in comics.

Frew Publications is an Australian comic book publisher, known for its long-running reprint series of Lee Falk's The Phantom. Frew formerly published other comics, including Falk's earlier creation Mandrake the Magician.

<i>The Phantom</i> (1996 film) 1996 film by Simon Wincer

The Phantom is a 1996 superhero film directed by Simon Wincer. Based on Lee Falk's comic strip The Phantom by King Features, the film stars Billy Zane as a seemingly immortal crimefighter and his battle against all forms of evil. The Phantom also stars Treat Williams, Kristy Swanson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, James Remar and Patrick McGoohan. The film's screenplay by Jeffrey Boam is loosely inspired by three of The Phantom stories, "The Singh Brotherhood", "The Sky Band" and "The Belt", but adds supernatural elements and several new characters.

<i>The Phantom</i> (serial) 1943 film by B. Reeves Eason

The Phantom is a 1943 15-chapter cliffhanger superhero serial, produced by Rudolph C. Flothow, directed B. Reeves Eason, and starring Tom Tyler in the title role. It is based on Lee Falk's comic strip The Phantom, first syndicated to newspapers in 1936 by King Features Syndicate. The serial also features Jeanne Bates as the Phantom's girlfriend Diana Palmer, and Ace the Wonder Dog as the Phantom's trusty German shepherd Devil.

Wilson McCoy

Robert Wilson McCoy was an American illustrator and painter best known as the second artist on the The Phantom comic strip. He always went by his middle name and signed The Phantom as Wilson McCoy, but his other artwork was signed R. Wilson McCoy.

<i>Phantom</i> novels

Lee Falk's comic strip character The Phantom has also appeared in several novels and short stories.

Guran is a character from The Phantom comic strip. Guran is the best friend of the main character, Phantom.

<i>The Story of the Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks</i>

The Story of the Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks is a novel written by Lee Falk in 1973, based on his own comic strip creation The Phantom.

Diana Palmer is a character in the American comic strip The Phantom. She is the wife of Kit Walker, the titular hero. The couple have two children together, Kit and Heloise. Most recently, Diana has been working in the UN's Bangalla office.

Ray Moore (comics)

'Raymond S. Moore was the co-creator, together with Lee Falk, and first artist on what would grow to become the world's most popular adventure comic strip, The Phantom, which started in 1936. Moore had previously worked as Phil Davis' assistant on the Lee Falk-created Mandrake the Magician comic strip, which was why he was thought to be a suitable choice to draw Falk's new creation.

<i>The Phantom</i> (miniseries)

The Phantom is a 2009 miniseries inspired by Lee Falk's comic strip of the same name, and directed by Paolo Barzman. It first aired on The Movie Network and then on Syfy in June 2010. It stars Ryan Carnes as Kit Walker, the 22nd Phantom, and is produced by RHI Entertainment and Muse Entertainment.

Phantom (character) Fictional character from The Phantom comic strip

The Phantom is a fictional costumed crime-fighter who operates from the fictional country of Bangalla. The character was created by Lee Falk for the adventure comic strip The Phantom, which debuted in newspapers on February 17, 1936.

References

  1. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-13. Retrieved 2017-04-14.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-10. Retrieved 2011-02-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ↑ Trivia for The Phantom
  4. ↑ "The Phantom movie review".
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