Deodato, Ruggero

(1939-)

   Screenwriter and director. After serving as assistant director for Roberto Rossellini on Il Generale della Rovere (General della Rovere, 1959) and Era notte a Roma (Escape by Night, 1960), Deodato worked across most of the popular genres, frequently collaborating as assistant or codirecting with Antonio Margheriti on films as different as the peplum Ursus il terrore dei Kirghizi (Hercules, Prisoner of Evil, 1964) and the minibudget science fiction fantasy I criminali della galassia (Wild, Wild Planet, 1965). On his own he directed (at times under the pseudonym Roger Rockefeller) exotic adventures, jungle films, musical comedies, Westerns, and police thrillers. He made his greatest mark, however, in the splatter-horror genre, achieving international cult status as "Mr. Cannibal" for his controversial and highly censored Ultimo mondo cannibale (The Last Cannibal World, 1977) and Cannibal Holocaust (Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust, 1980), described as "the most savage and brutal film in modern history." From the late 1980s he has worked on much milder television fare, but in 2005 a Cannibal Holocaust 2 was announced as being in pre-production.

   Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira