Don Coscarelli Jr. (born February 17, 1954) is an American

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

, producer, and

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

. He is best known for his work in

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

s. His directing credits include the first four films in the ''Phantasm'' franchise, as well as '' The Beastmaster'' (1982) and '' Bubba Ho-Tep'' (2002).

Biography

Coscarelli was born to

Italian settlers in Libya Italian Libyans () are Libyan-born citizens who are fully or partially of Italy, Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who emigrated to Libya during the Italian diaspora, or Italian-born people in Libya. Most of the Italians moved to L ...

and raised in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

. Although his family was not connected with the motion picture business, he was fascinated with cameras and filmmaking at an early age. Long before he was old enough to attend film school, his short films, made with the help of neighborhood friends in his hometown of

Los Alamitos, California is a city in Orange County, California. The city was incorporated in March 1960. The population was 11,780 at the 2020 census, up from 11,449 at the 2010 census. The USA Water Polo National Aquatic Center is located on the Joint Forces Tr ...

, were winning prizes on television. At the age of 19, Coscarelli became the youngest director to have a feature film distributed by a major studio when he sold his independently produced drama '' Jim the World's Greatest'', to Universal Pictures. The film was the first collaboration for Coscarelli with actor Lawrence Rory Guy, who went on to achieve horror icon status under the screen name Angus Scrimm. ''Jim the World's Greatest'' was an official selection of the USA Film Festival. Coscarelli is best known for '' Phantasm'', and its sequels. The original film was a worldwide critical and box-office success and won the Special Jury Prize at the Festival du Cinema Fantastique at Avoriaz,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. Coscarelli also co-wrote (with Paul Pepperman) and directed '' The Beastmaster'', which was described by ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'' as "a surefire audience favorite." '' The Beastmaster'' has spawned two sequels and a

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

. Coscarelli was the recipient of the

Bram Stoker Award The Bram Stoker Award is a recognition presented annually by the Horror Writers Association (HWA) for "superior achievement" in dark fantasy and horror writing. History The Awards were established in 1987 and have been presented annually since ...

for Best Screenplay for his film '' Bubba Ho-Tep'', which he also directed. Based on a short story by Joe R. Lansdale, it stars Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis, and frequent Coscarelli collaborator Reggie Bannister. In addition to being a critical hit, ''Bubba Ho-Tep'' was also a festival favorite, playing prestigious international film festivals like the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

, Florida Film Festival, Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Films, and the

Hong Kong International Film festival The Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) is one of Asia's oldest international film festivals. Founded in 1976, the festival features different movies and filmmakers from different countries, and takes place in Hong Kong. HKIFF screens ...

. At

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

's US Comedy Arts Festival, Coscarelli was the recipient of the Best Screenplay Award. At

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

's FantAsia Festival, ''Bubba Ho-Tep'' received the Best International Film award. Coscarelli also directed the premiere episode of the American TV series '' Masters of Horror'', titled " Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" and co-wrote the teleplay with Stephen Romano. In 2008, Coscarelli purchased film rights to the horror novel and internet series '' John Dies at the End'' by David Wong. The film was completed in 2011, and released in 2013. In 2018, he published his memoir, ''True Indie: Life and Death in Filmmaking''.

Personal life

Coscarelli frequently collaborates with his wife,

costume designer A costume designer is a person who designs costumes for a film, stage production or television show. The role of the costume designer is to create the characters' outfits or costumes and balance the scenes with texture and colour, etc. The costum ...

Shelley Kay. His daughter is award-winning

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a ve ...

chef Chloe Coscarelli.

Filmography

*'' Jim the World's Greatest'' (1976) *'' Kenny & Company'' (1976) *'' Phantasm'' (1979) *'' The Beastmaster'' (1982) *'' Phantasm II'' (1988) *'' Survival Quest'' (1989) *'' Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead'' (1994) *'' Phantasm IV: Oblivion'' (1998) *'' Bubba Ho-Tep'' (2002) *'' Incident On and Off a Mountain Road'' (2005, TV, '' Masters of Horror'' series) *'' John Dies at the End'' (2012) *'' Phantasm: Ravager'' (2016) - producer and co-writer *''Applecart'' (2017) - executive producer

Awards

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coscarelli, Don 1954 births Living people People from Tripoli, Libya American horror film directors American male screenwriters Libyan people of Italian descent Libyan emigrants to the United States American writers of Italian descent Wilson Classical High School alumni Film directors from Los Angeles Screenwriters from California