(UPDATED) ‘Phantom of the Paradise’ Documentary Enters Production

UPDATE: Matt Thomas, the team member behind the film’s IndieGoGo campaign, got in touch with us in the comments and left us a link to the film’s funding page. Click here to help out this awesome documentary, and watch the pitch video right here:

Brian De Palma’s Phantom of the Paradise is the horror rock musical that should have an enormous following instead of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and I say that as someone who thoroughly enjoys Richard O’Brien’s madcap movie (though much more for its music than its hodgepodge plot). De Palma’s mixture of Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera, Goethe’s Faust, and the ’70s rock and pop music scene is a delight that deserves more recognition, and here’s hoping that a new documentary will help get it in front of more eyeballs.

Director Malcolm Ingram (Small Town Gay Bar, Continental) is beginning production on Phantom of Winnipeg, a film that will examine the popularity De Palma’s film enjoys in the Canadian city of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Phantom of the Paradise outsold Jaws when in opened in Winnipeg during its initial release, and the album sales from youngsters in Winnipeg were crucial in getting the soundtrack to a gold record in Canada. The town still celebrates the film with Phantompalooza, a festival that’s been held semi-annually since 2004 (and that someone should surprise me with tickets to one year).

I always love documentaries that focus on the bizarre passions that people have (Michael Stephenson’s Best Worst Movie and The American Scream are good examples), and the fact that Phantom of Winnipeg has to do with a film I feel bizarrely passionate about makes it a must see affair for me. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with one of the excellent songs from Phantom of the Paradise written by the ineffable Paul Williams:

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