"Every saga has a beginning. Every joke has a setup." (111 minutes, 1999)
In some ways, this is where it all began. I was 18 years old and just out of high school when David Ashe and I made this feature-length Star Wars parody. We had been huge Star Wars fans, and like everyone else, we saw The Phantom Menace and were baffled by it. But unlike other people, we decided to do something about it. We went back and took notes. We sharpened our axes. We had a lot of fun making this, and it showed onscreen.
I wasn't really a filmmaker yet - the movie is shot mostly in wide shots, with the camera mike picking up the sound. It still has sort of a sketch comedy feel and in some ways it's an extended in-joke, as there are lots of references to our Dr. Fred movies ... this being a "prequel." But everyone I asked to be in the movie excelled themselves - a lot of very funny people. This was a much more ambitious movie than the previous two Dr. Fred movies .... and a much more popular one. It was even featured in Gear Magazine as #7 on a list of the best cable access programs in the nation. This was many years ago now, but The Phantom Movie will always have a place in my heart. Haven't watched it in years though - in my heart, that's the place for it.
Meet Whis-kei Jinn, a drunken Fredi master with a taste for violence and gambling. Meet his apprentice Boink, an angry Irish gnome-in-training who speaks softly and carries a big gun. Against a backdrop of civil comedic war, they stumble upon a tale of a girl, a boy, and a random lobster. As this plot overcomplicates itself we will see them commit multiple felonies, travel back and forth in time, and thoroughly demolish the films of George Lucas.
Starring David Ashe as Whis-kei, Justin Bielawa as Boink, Garrett Gilchrist as Annoying Bootlicker/Darth Hologram/Sta-Wa Jinx, Liz DiMenno as Queen Amadeus, Michelle Caruso as Smee, Niket Doshi as Darth Ass-Kick, David Brown as Leonard Cubbins, Ben Sipprell as Ford T-Bird, Dan Buzi as Captain Binaca, Greg N!colett as a Sitcom Dad, Jerome White as himself, C. Talmadge Pearson as a warlord's roommate, David Marshall as the Queen's least favorite attendant, and Kelly Stryker, Sara Jeruss, Bethany Veerman and Michael McClenathan as the mime squad.
The Phantom Movie (111 min, 1999) was an Orange Cow Production directed by Garrett Gilchrist and produced by David Ashe. It was written by Garrett Gilchrist and David Ashe.
nominated for Best Screenplay [Garrett Gilchrist & David Ashe]
and Best Star Cameo [Jar Jar Binks] at the 2000 B-Movie Awards
nominated for Best Comedy at the 2001 Rewind International Media Festival
"I like this movie. No, I love this movie. This is my favorite feature length amateur comedy ever." - Jared Hargrave, Rusty Hoot Pictures
"The funniest movie I've seen in a long time." - Dan Gorgone, Random Foo Pictures
"[A] confused and jumbled mess." - Film Threat
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