Bubba marks Reggie’s ninth outing with Coscarelli. The pair made their respective debuts as actor and director with the 1970 film “Kenny And Company,” then moving on to “Jim, the World’s Greatest” with Gregory Harrison, before finally making “Phantasm.” Since then, Bannister has been quite comfortable in the genre, making appearances in “Wishmaster” and the fun short, “That Little Monster.” But Bannister has never been comfortable doing just one thing. While music has always been his first love, Reggie’s attentions have never strayed too far from filmmaking. Around the time Coscarelli was putting together “Phantasm IV: Oblivion,” Reggie teamed up with his wife, Gigi Fast Elk Bannister, the pair started their own production company and became what they refer to as “hole fillers”. “If you have a production and find yourself in a hole somewhere, you give us a call and we can bail you out. You need crew; we can do that. You need CGI; we know who to go to for that. And we’re talking about good deals, too! (laughs) We’ll work with your budget. If you have an industrial video, we can shoot that for you. Gigi’s been around for a long time in films. She started basically as a model, then got into runway modeling. She’s got a great and wacky story. She’s the mother of twins; she’s an army veteran, retired. She’s done all this stuff, jumped out of helicopters with a parachute. And then she started getting into film and getting into putting on live events. She’s been a background player in any number of films. She was in “Gardens of Stone,” “Tin Men,” “Bedroom Window.” She’s just done a lot of stuff. I’ve been instrumental in helping Don production-wise since about “Phantasm III.” In “Phantasm IV,” with Gigi on board, she got a credit for being the special effects supervisor–” In the background, I hear a voice correct him, “Make-Up Co-Coordinator!” Reggie laughs. “Right, Make-Up Co-Coordinator. But that’s not all she did. She wore about fourteen different hats. One night she was doing first A.D. work and hollering for everybody to shut up before we shoot. She’s really knowledgeable about how films get made, and she’s really great just to have on the set.”
Adding to all that, Reggie is currently securing the necessary funding to begin his own film, “Worst Fears,” which he co-wrote with Mike Lester and Shawn Clark. “It’s just a really interesting story about several characters, who they think they are and who they become. Or who they finally realize they are. And you kind of take that journey with them, without really knowing more than they do about what’s going on.”
Visit Reggie at his official website.
