If, like this writer, you have a soft spot for the shabby but fun charms of Bruce Campbell-as-elderly-Elvis-fights-evil-mummy pic Bubba Ho-Tep, you’re probably still hoping that much-touted vampire-flavoured prequel Bubba Nosferatu might yet happen. But with Campbell ditching the lead role and the movie seemingly mired in financial issues, very little has happened with it. Still, Paul Giamatti, who agreed to play Colonel Tom Parker, seems convinced it’ll get made. Eventually.
Chatting with MTV, Giamatti admitted that while it’s not happening just yet, he’s convinced it can get off the ground at some point. "We've been trying to make that for two, three years, and we're going to get it done at some point," Giamatti says. "I'm going to f***ing break my spine in half if I have to to get that thing done."
And with good reason (though we hope he has the number of a good chiropractor if he does go through with that second promise), since he believes in the movie. "We've been trying so hard and we've had so many near-misses," he continued. "It's almost come together like 15 freaking times and then it falls apart. At some point we're going to get that done because it's a great script. We'll get it done at some point."
Bubba’s path to the screen isn’t helped by the current trend in Hollywood for either mega blockbusters or mainstream comedy. “I think it's just the atmosphere of movies right now, smaller movies. Nobody has the balls to make a movie for under... it's got to be a $40 million comedy or a $200 million Avatar and that's it," he decries. "Those are the only things anybody wants to make right now. Nobody wants to do anything else. So that movie is deemed way too bizarre and outside the box right now. Which is stupid, because there's an audience for that movie, totally."
If wishes were greenlights, Bubba Nosferatu would be already in cinemas, possibly with Ron Perlman inheriting the Elvis role. But for now, we at least have Paul Giamatti to keep the faith.