E.T. creator Carlo Rambaldi is set on outdoing Roberto Benigni and making a film Pinocchio to rival the much-loved Disney classic.
Rambaldi, who won the second of his two Oscars for the 1982 Steven Spielberg sci-fi smash, said he had long been obsessed by the idea of outdoing Walt Disney's 1941 masterpiece.
"It's always been a bee in my bonnet," said the 82-year-old visual effects master, who won his first Oscar for Alien (1979) after being nominated for King Kong (1976).
"Now I hope I can finally get something done," said the three-time Oscar winner, whose last film credit was for his son Vittorio's Primal Rage in 1988.
Rambaldi said he was working on the Pinocchio idea with Vittorio, 50, a horror specialist also known for Decoy (1995).
Rambaldi, an old-style effects man who has often complained that computers have taken the magic out of his craft, said he admired Benigni's 2002 work, in which the actor himself played the fairy-tale puppet.
He said he would try a similar approach to Benigni's in bringing out the darker aspects of Carlo Collodi's 1883 work, which many Italians see as a complex morality tale that Disney simplified and lightened up.
Rambaldi, who has set up an interactive history of special effects at the annual science fest here, hopes his Pinocchio will get a more generous reception than Benigni's labour of love.
Italian critics praised the film but US reviewers were scathing.
"Roberto was unfairly panned by the American critics, who didn't understand what he was trying to do. We Italians loved it," said Rambaldi.
Rambaldi can't devote himself to his life-long obsession straight away, however.
First he has to make the effects for a Vatican-sponsored musical on Dante's Divine Comedy.
"It's scheduled to open at a major Rome theatre this fall and then it'll go on tour," he said.
