As costumed crusaders become further entrenched in mainstream
entertainment, Sci-Fi Network is hoping to update one of the oldest
comic heroes, The Phantom, for television. (Newsarama Note: The Phantom's current and upcoming fate in comics has been in the news recently - check the links below for Newsarama's coverage)
Created even before Superman in comic strips of the '30s, the Phantom
is being translated for TV by screenwriters Daniel Knauf (of HBO's Carnivale)
and his son, Charles Knauf. The writers said they've turned in a script
for a four-hour Phantom movie that is waiting to be greenlit, with the
hopes of an eventual series for Sci-Fi.
"Sci-Fi's saying, you know, let's take another look at this Phantom
guy," Daniel Knauf told Newsarama during this weekend's San Diego
Comic-Con. "A lot of people are responding to superheroes, obviously.
Just look at Comic-Con. And Phantom was one of the first costumed
superheroes. He's a little bit more hardcore than other superheroes in
that he packs guns and has martial arts training to kill, military
style."
While this is their first co-venture into television, the two have been
co-writing costumed heroes for Marvel Comics for the last two years,
including Iron Man and the Eternals. In the case of the Phantom,
however, the Knaufs said they had to create a more modern version of
the pulp hero.
"We upgraded everything so that it's a modern-day Phantom," Charles
Knauf said. "In the tradition of the Phantom, it's going to be a great
adventure story. It's going to be action and car chases. He's still got
a purple costume, but we upgraded it. We made it tougher. And he's got
both rings, and they mark you, just like the original story. But we're
updating everything to make it more modern."
The Phantom, which has been published in various comic formats since it
was created by Lee Falk in 1936, is the story of the legendary "Ghost
Who Walks," the hero who protects the innocent with the help of his
Jungle Patrol in the fictional country of Bangalla. A character who has
been the subject of TV shows and movies in the past, the Phantom
character is seen as immortal by the people of Bangalla because the
mantle has been passed down through generations since the 16th Century,
with each son replacing his father.
"In our story, we have a break in the lineage. The 22nd Phantom, the
one we all know and love, his wife and his son died in an automobile
accident. So when he died, there was no one to take over," Daniel Knauf
explained. "But it turns out the son survived and has been raised by a
foster family and has no idea who he is. They find him through a fluke
when he's arrested on a trespassing charge, and he ends up getting his
DNA into CODIS [the national DNA database]. The people in Bangalla who
are still part of the Jungle Patrol -- which we call Bpaa-Thap (which
literally translates to 'Jungle Patrol') -- they find him and decide to
bring him in and train him. So it's a whole new game for this kid. So
he's very conflicted, as far as who he was and who he thinks he is."
The villain from the Phantom comics, the "Singh Brotherhood" that
killed the first Phantom's father, have also been updated for TV.
"They've evolved into this huge corporate entity. After the death of
the 22nd Phantom, which takes place 14 years before our story, that gap
without a Phantom led to everything horrible that's happening today.
It's the Singh Brotherhood behind it," Daniel Knauf explained. "Their
whole thing is that if they can keep people at war, they'll make money.
They're fomenting distrust between various nations and factions, and
just making sure that there are always bad things happening. But our
lead bad guy is Raatib Singh, and he's a corporate animal."
"You'll see something deeper to him that makes him much more twisted
than your average corporate bad guy," Charles Knauf added. "Like when
somebody gets into an argument with him, instead of doing something
like spreading rumors about him sleeping with another guy's wife, he'll
shoot him in the face. He's a really twisted character. He's a
psychopath."
Daniel Knauf said he originally thought he wouldn't have the time to
dedicate to the Phantom, but working with his son lightened the load.
Knauf is working on an HBO "mockudrama" series called Honey Vicarro, a four-hour movie for ABC about the end of the world called Exodus, and the feature film, House of Cain for Will Smith. So at first, he turned down the opportunity to write The Phantom for Sci-Fi.
"I passed. I was booked. I was completely booked," he said. "And then
Charlie comes home and sees this outline sheet about The Phantom on my
desk. And he said, 'Oh, you have to do this. You're doing this.'"
"I walked in and I saw the sheet, and I said, 'Is this the Phantom I
know and love?'" said Charles Knauf, who grew up reading Phantom
comics. "And it was indeed The Phantom. And I said you have to do this!
This is great!"
The Knaufs said what attracted them most to the project was that the
Phantom is one of the pulp fiction "mystery men" from the '30s like the
Shadow and Sandman, so he doesn't necessarily play by the same rules as
other superheroes. "He's a straight-up pulp hero. This was before
everyone was copying Superman and Captain Marvel. The Phantom was a
much earlier character," Charles Knauf said.
"You know what sold me? Charlie said he carries twin 1911's [Colt
pistols]. I said, he carries guns? He said, yeah. I said, oh, well,
we're doing it. He kills people," Daniel Knauf said. "And we updated
the guns. We actually have them chambered for .44 Magnum bullets."
"But it's also pure superhero because there is good and there is bad.
This isn't an anti-hero. It's black and white for him. This is the
Phantom, and he does what's right," Charles Knauf added. "I think part
of why Sci-Fi is interested in the Phantom is the success of the Batman
franchise. You don't necessarily have to have someone with superpowers;
you just have to have someone who's heroic."
Daniel Knauf agreed that the Phantom is first and foremost a hero, but
he said the story is also one of revenge. "I think, in a sense, that
what [the Phantom's story] speaks to is that it's a confusing time to
live. What we're kind of saying with this is maybe it's time for
somebody who has a clear idea of what's right and what's wrong," he
said. "And the Phantom has always been, and in our script it very much
is, a revenge drama. It's about a victim of crime. Back in the 16th
Century, the Phantom's father is murdered by pirates, and he thinks,
you know what? I don't want anybody else to feel the way I do right
now. And so I'm going to make sure this never happens to anybody again.
And really, our character goes through what I would say is a worse
situation. We have a line in it that says, 'This isn't about revenge.
It's about justice.' And the Phantom says, 'Revenge IS justice.' And so
it's got a darkness around the edges."
For now, the Knaufs are waiting for the project to be greenlit because
they just turned in the first draft of the script. "We haven't gotten
our first set of notes yet. It's still got a long way to go upstream. I
kind of equate it to a salmon, and you hope this one spawns," Daniel
Knauf said with a laugh. "We're hoping this one makes it, because we're
in love with it. It's a very, very cool project."
Related: Dynamite to Reboot, Publish the PhantomThe Phantom Still Rides at MoonstoneThe Phantom Comic Rights - Dynamite's ViewThe Phantom: Moonstone Fires Back
