How did Bruce get involved with Bubba Ho-Tep?
It’s a strange true story that the entire thing was based on a prank phone call. I got a call to my office – a message on my answering machine – from Sam Raimi’s office inviting me to a retrospective screening of Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind that was Sam was hosting. So when I called to RSVP, the assistant didn’t know what I was talking about because there was no screening! So Sam came on the line and we had a good laugh that someone had pulled this trick on me – it was a very odd trick. So we started talking about movies and I told him I was planning this Elvis versus The Mummy movie and he said “You should cast Bruce Campbell – he’s a great actor! I’ll have him call you!” And about fifteen minutes later the phone rang and it was Bruce: “I hear you’re making this Elvis picture…” So we get together and had lunch and talked about it. he thought it was the weirdest script he’s ever read! It was great, and I thought he’d work out fine, and that’s what happened. A lot o
