Friday, June 22, 2012

The PEPLUM that almost was

Amazing photo provided by a Facebook friend, Steven Smith (via Simon Fiumicino Lotta Momilia). This photo was taken during the production of a film called ZEUS (or ZEUS VS THE UNIVERSE). The film was shot at Gordon Mitchell's studios (he had studio?) with fx by Carlo Rambaldi. In the photo, you can see Mickey Hargitay, who's holding the title of the film. According to William Connolly's blog, Spaghetti Cinema, the production was stopped when the director, Emimmo Salvi, killed himself once he learned he was diabetic(!).  Amazing stuff. I wonder if there's any footage stored somewhere. It would be great to see.

2 comments:

S.R.Orsulak said...

Gordon Mitchell did have his own studio. I think the name of it was CAVE STUDIOS (pronounced CALL VA or something like that)many movies were made from PEP, S WESTERNS, SPY, AND WAR. Gordon even joked at one time that he was on a Dozer still building sets on the lot and had to take break and go shoot a couple of scenes in one of westerns he made, he made a a lot of money and for the big tough looking guy he was an excellent painter. That was his main love.

iain said...

"cave" pronounced "ka-way" means, in Latin, "beware". As in "cave canem" = "beware of the dog".