Curse of the Dragon Egg: The Lost Film

The last film by Franco Lodovico before his mysterious disappearance in 1971.

Now, 23 years later, the only remaining sequence of the film has been recovered by Executive Producer Alexander Ripstein Hijo and friends of Lodovico.

A large portion of this sequence was recovered from the trunk of Lodovico's El Dorado that he'd apparently pawned just outside the Mexican-American border before having disappeared. The owner of the El Dorado claimed he was a strange man. "Like no one I'd ever scene. He was after something..." He sold the film can to Hijo for 30 pesos, and that was that.

Now, for the first time ever, Lodovico's provocative talents can come alive and be shared with the masses. Who knows what potential glory this man might have seen? What success this film might have brought? All we have is this short scene to give us a vague idea of Franco Lodovico's vision.

... Actually I shot this. Franco Lodovico never existed, but that is really the backstory behind the entire scene. A film, within a film. Franco Lodovico is a man who dreamed of one day becoming a successful movie director in Italy, but his dreams, though small, were not enough to entertain Italian producers. And so Lodovico traveled to Hollywood, hoping to shop around his script and have a studio back his project. He shot only one scene as a sample for producers, but no one was interested.

Desperate, Lodovico stamped another print with Spanish subtitles, hoping to market the film to Mexican audiences. Sure enough, Lodovico found a producer! Alexander Ripstein Hijo, who was famous for distributing The Luchador Avenger franchise. Unfortunately, before Hijo could hand the money over to Lodovico to shoot the film. He disappeared, spiraling into a pit of despair and woe. No one knows what happened to him exactly. Many guess that he became addicted to drugs and died of an overdose. Others believe it was alcohol. Others like to believe that Lodovico was not truly of this earth, and is even perhaps an extra-terrestrial, producing films on another planet right now... Whatever the case, this is all that is left of Franco Lodovico... for now... maybe... Who knows?

Category:

Comedy

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