| Italian Spiderman | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Spoof Comedy Action |
| Created by | Alrugo Entertainment |
| Directed by | Alrugo Entertainment |
| Starring | Franco Franchetti Leombruno Tosca |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Language(s) | Italian English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 10 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Alrugo Entertainment |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | YouTube |
| First shown in | 22 May 2008 |
| Original airing | 8 November 2007 |
Italian Spiderman is a film parody of Italian action–adventure films of the 60s and 70s, first released on YouTube in 2007. The parody purports to be a "lost Italian film" by Alrugo Entertainment, an Australian film-making collective formed by Dario Russo, Tait Wilson, David Ashby, Will Spartalis and Boris Repasky.[1]
Ostensibly an Italian take on the comic book superhero Spider-Man, the film is a reference to foreign movies that misappropriate popular American superheroes such as the Indian version of Superman (1987),[2] I Fantastici Tre Supermen (3 Fantastic Supermen) (1967) and La Mujer Murcielago (The Batwoman) (1968).[3] It also resembles the movie The Bathman dal pianeta Eros (1982).
A trailer was released, followed by a full-length feature made up of ten mini-episodes.
Contents |
In the middle of a party, an asteroid from a distant galaxy falls to Earth and is taken by professor Bernardi (Carmine Russo) for research. He discovers the asteroid has a substance that can create duplicates from any living being and decides that Italian Spiderman (Franco Franchetti), a fat, rude, and powerful superhero, is the only man capable to have custody of the valuable asteroid.
As soon as Professor Bernardi gives Italian Spiderman the asteroid, he is attacked by the terrible Captain Maximum (Leombruno Tosca) who is interested in using the asteroid for his own evil plans. Foiled in his attempt to steal the asteroid from Bernardi, he transforms the Professor into a snake. Captain Maximum later intercepts the Italian Spiderman and takes the asteroid, although he gives Italian Spiderman a chance to win it by beating Maximum in a surf contest. When Captain Maximum notices the obviously superior surfing skills of Italian Spiderman, Maximum attempts to win by cheating. His efforts fail, however, as Italian Spiderman summons the help of penguins (which hurl themselves at Captain Maximum and his henchwomen) and wins. When Italian Spiderman returns home, he is again attacked by Captain Maximum's henchmen, where a tranquilizer dart causes the hero to collapse.
Waking up in Captain Maximum's lair he witnesses how the professor is forced to utilize the powers of duplication on one of Captain Maximum's henchmen. Italian Spiderman is forced to watch as the professor is shot by Maximum. The furious Italian Spiderman attacks Maximum's henchmen, killing many in a surprisingly gory battle sequence. Despite Italian Spiderman's efforts the Professor dies but in his last moments gives the Italian Spiderman the potion. Italian Spiderman again attacks the headquarters of Captain Maximum. Despite having the potion, Italian Spiderman overwhelms by his powers alone the newfound army (showing in the process to have a poisonous bite and removable moustaches that can double as razor-sharp boomerangs). Later, Italian Spiderman returns home with the Professor's niece. When a gigantic Captain Maximum lays siege to the city, Italian Spiderman finally drinks the potion, growing to the same height of Captain Maximum and battling him until the titles roll.
The project began as a trailer for a non-existent film, produced as a student film at Flinders University by director Dario Russo for his final year Screen Production project.[4] The "trailer" was shot, over the course of one day, on 16 mm film using an older style camera to achieve an authentic look for the films of that era.
Publicized as an actual lost Italian action film from the late 1960s, the film was later uploaded onto YouTube on 8 November 2007 where it has gained a massive cult following with 4,023,377 hits as of December 2011. With some of mainstream media taking interest in the film, this led to the South Australian Film Corporation giving the filmmakers funding for ten more short films.[5]
The first installment of the "feature film" premiered across the Internet on 22 May 2008; further installments followed on a weekly basis.
The series was well-received, but ended on a cliffhanger. The May 2010 announcement of the end of Alrugo Entertainment[6] casts doubt on any possible continuation of the project.
| Italian Spiderman [fictional] | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Gianfranco Gatti |
| Produced by | Alfonso Alrugo |
| Written by | Gianfranco Gatti |
| Starring | Franco Franchetti Leombruno Tosca |
| Music by | Enzo Bontempi |
| Cinematography | Primo Ziglio |
| Editing by | Alfonso Alrugo |
| Distributed by | Alrugo Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | Created 1968, never released |
| Running time | 90 min. |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
| Budget | $15,000,000 |
| Box office | Unreleased |
Alrugo Entertainment was founded in 1961 in Palermo, Italy by orange-farming mogul Alfonso Alrugo. After accruing considerable wealth in the citrus trade, Alfonso decided to start a film production company that produced films that he felt "did the job". Alfonso was very supportive of up-and-coming practitioners and helped to nurture the blossoming careers of a spate of Italian directors like Gianfranco Gatti, Massimilliano Buonatempi, Carlo Zoffa and of course Giacomo Dentibiachi. Alrugo Entertainment began producing low budget, nudie-cutie pictures such as Busto Busto (1961) and Sex Cops II (1962). During this period, Alfonso was to discover two men who would play a large role in the next part of his life, director Gianfraco Gatti and actor Franco Franchetti. In 1964 Alrugo went into production of Gatti's opus, Italian Spiderman. Italian Spiderman was a heavily adapted and abridged interpretation of a novel Gatti had read during a summer in Moldova entitled Death Wears a Hat. When applying for the option, however, the author felt Italian Spiderman held such little resemblance to his work that payment was not necessary and felt that his name should be distanced as far as possible from the production. After three years of turbulent production and about $15 million later (a sum unheard of for any production of the time) Italian Spiderman was finally completed in 1968.
Even though Alrugo had survived the epic production period, a venture that Gatti described as "opening the gates of hell" (Gianfranco Gatti wrote about Italian Spiderman in his autobiography Opening the Gates of Hell), the company was in debt. There was no money left to distribute the picture and Alfonso had pulled every last favour he had during the production process. In a desperate attempt to show Italian Spiderman to the world, Alfonso sent the only existing print across the Atlantic on a cargo ship to a distributor friend of his in New York - the ship, however, never reached its destination. In the summer of 1969, Alfonso Alrugo closed the gates to Alrugo Entertainment and donned his orange-picking glove once more. Gianfranco Gatti went on to direct hardcore pornography and Franco Francheti died in a spearfishing accident. On Alfonso Alrugo's dying wishes, his two grandsons Vivaldi and Verdi Alrugo led an expedition to scour the Atlantic for the cargo ship carrying the only existing print of Italian Spiderman.
On 9 January 2006, after four years at sea, they discovered the sunken vessel with the cans intact inside. In the excitement of this amazing discovery, Vivaldi and Verdi reopened Alrugo Entertainment and spent two years restoring the full-length print of Italian Spiderman from its watery grave. Vivaldi and Verdi believe that the Internet is the best device to expose Italian Spiderman to the world. In November 2007, they uploaded the theatrical trailer and in 2008, ten remastered excerpts from the feature will be broadcast for free over MySpace, YouTube, Yahoo!, and other video-hosting websites. Hopefully through the Internet, the world will now have a chance to behold Alfonso Alrugo's dream: Italian Spiderman.[7]
Italian Spiderman's powers that have been revealed:
"Italian Spiderman"/"Bangarang" Enzo Bontempi (Soulful Torino Records RK45 017/STR003)