Tuesday, April 13, 2010

The "Never Got Made" File #4 and #5: Dueling Siegfrieds


Both ads here are circa 1982. I wonder what could have possibly spawned such an interest in sword and sorcery films with musclebound protagonists? ;-) Yes, the effects of CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982) were felt worldwide and, naturally, the Italians jumped on the genre quickly. Of course, leave it to the Italians to go wayyy out there and adapt an act from Richard Wagner's opera DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN (THE RING OF THE NIBELUNG) in order to cash in on the CONAN craze.

SIEGFRIED THE NIBELUNG lists one Peter Newton as the director. That is, of course, the pseudonym for Joe D'Amato and chances are this project morphed into ATOR THE INVINCIBLE of the same year.


THE SWORD OF SIEGFRIED had the irascible Lucio Fulci listed as the prospective director. Again, this specific project did not materialize, but Fulci did get his fantasy freak on with CONQUEST as short time later.



One has wonder if legal technicalities played into the changing of both from SIEGFRIED projects to regular sword and sorcery projects. Ha, like that would ever stop the Italians!

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