Hercules

Hercules (1983)

The strongest man on Earth.

Hercules, a semi-divine being, squares off against King Minos, who is attempting to use science to gain power and take over the world. With the help of a benevolent sorceress, Circe, Hercules tries to save his beloved Cassiopeia from being sacrificed by Minos, and struggles against laser-breathing creatures and an evil sorceress.

Date of release
1983-08-12
TMDB
5.0 / 10 (129)
Runtime
1h 38m
Genres
Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Director
Luigi Cozzi
Collection
Hercules Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Box office: $10.7M
  • Budget: $2.5M
  • Earned 4.3× its budget
  • Awards: 2 · Nominations: 5. Including: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress; Golden Raspberry Award for Worst New Star

Hercules is a 1983 fantasy film written and directed by Luigi Cozzi and starring bodybuilder-turned-actor Lou Ferrigno, Brad Harris, Sybil Danning, and William Berger. It is loosely based on Greek mythology, plus elements of Cozzi's earlier science fiction opus Starcrash. It received mostly negative reviews, but was a modest financial success. Ferrigno reprised his role in the 1985 sequel, The Adventures of Hercules.

Production

The revival of Hercules was motivated by the hype surrounding 1982's Conan The Barbarian. Menahem Golan also told Luigi Cozzi that he was a fan of the old Italian peplums, and wanted to make one as soon as he opened an Italian branch of his Cannon Films outfit.

The film was revealed to the press in March 1982, with photography slated for May. It was then to be directed by Bruno Mattei and produced by his frequent partner, Israeli Alexander Hacohen. The project was later split into two separate films, Hercules and Hercules and the Seven Gladiators, to be shot back-to-back.

Gladiators was shot first, but Mattei had misfortunes during its making. Two conflicting versions exist. Mattei claims that Cozzi conspired to have him removed by denigrating the planned script for Hercules, and tempting Cannon with a more effects-driven vision. According to Cozzi, Cannon was simply displeased with the dailies of The Seven Magnificent Gladiators, and so fired Mattei.

Upon the film's announcement, Ricardo Ghione was briefly listed as the screenwriter, but he was soon replaced by Mattei regular Claudio Fragasso. Under Mattei and Fragasso, it was intended as a much more straightforward re-imagining of 1958's Hercules.

Author Gary Allen Smith notes that aside from the cleaning of the Augean stables, the Twelve Labours of Hercules are seldom represented on screen. Additionally, he romances Cassiopeia, which does not happen in the Greek myth, and is the orphaned son of King Amphitryon of Thebes, which contradicts it outright. Ferrigno also insisted that the script be excised of its more adult elements, as he held a responsibility toward the child audience.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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