Q&A: Paul Giamatti’s Dream Project: “Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She Vampires”
by Eric Spitznagel
Vanity Fair | November 21, 2008, 9:50 AM


Paul Giamatti is a man on a mission. The acclaimed star of such critically lauded and (occasionally) award-winning films as Sideways and American Splendor is fighting for his next project, trying to save it from the dustbin of Hollywood history. What sort of cinematic masterpiece has commanded the loyalty and unwavering support of one of the greatest thespians of his generation?


Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She Vampires.


To the uninitiated, it might seem like Giamatti is just having us on, playing an April Fool’s joke a few months too soon. But rest assured, he’s completely serious. Bubba Nosferatu is the long-anticipated sequel to Bubba Ho-Tep, the 2002 underground classic from camp auteur Don Coscarelli (The Beastmaster, Phantasm, etc). Bubba Ho-Tep, which was a surprise hit at film festivals and midnight screenings for many years, tells the story of an elderly Elvis Presley (played by cult icon Bruce Campbell, from Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead) who teams up with an African American John F. Kennedy (his skin was dyed black in an elaborate conspiracy) to battle a cowboy mummy terrorizing their nursing home.


It’s one of those “you have to see it to appreciate it” kinds of movies. The premise may sound like Ed Wood schlock, but Bubba Ho-Tep is actually a touching reflection on growing old. But with a sense of humor. And soul-sucking mummies and giant killer cockroaches.


The closing credits of Bubba Ho-Tep promised a sequel, although it was initially intended as a joke. Until very recently, Bubba Nosferatu — in which Elvis and his infamous manager Colonel Tom Parker (played by Paul Giamatti) take on a coven of female vampires in Louisiana — was almost a foregone conclusion. But after original star Bruce Campbell dropped out (eventually replaced by Hellboy’s Ron Perlman) and the funding fell through, it looked like Bubba Nosferatu would become one of those great movies that never got made, like Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis or the film version of Confederacy of Dunces… Read the rest of this article on Vanity Fair online!

Tags: Bubba Nosferatu, fantasy, Horror, humor, movie, New Orleans, Paul Giamatti, vampires

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