If you’re a variant-art collector, the genre specialist has your number.
Encyclopocalypse Publications has opened up pre-orders for its novelization of MURDER BY PHONE, the 1982 techno-horror film that was also released as BELLS and THE CALLING. The adaptation, written by Jon Messman, was originally published as PHONE CALL, based on the original screenplay by Michael Butler and Dennis Shryack (THE CAR, PALE RIDER) and commissioned before the movie went into production. In tribute to its fractured history, Encyclopocalypse is reissuing the novelization in paperback and e-book, with a new introduction by Butler, with six different covers reflecting the BELLS and CALLING theatrical poster art, the MURDER VHS box, the PHONE CALL cover and two overseas posters.
“Jon’s novelization nails the foundational insight that drew Dennis and me to the story idea in the first place,” Butler writes in the intro. “If you want a more comprehensive sense of what Dennis and I had in mind when we wrote the PHONE CALL screenplay, you don’t have to look any further than Jon Messman’s novelization.”
The paperback and e-book are set to release October 15, and the different versions can be pre-ordered here. You can also pre-order all six in a discounted bundle here.
