At last, somewhere I can put my eye-squinting and Toscano-chomping skills to good use.
Cinecittà Studios has opened Italy’s largest amusement park in Rome. In addition to two roller coasters, a flight simulator, an immersive tunnel, a water attraction, four theaters and theme restaurants, the park is home to attractions inspired by classic films.
Visitors enter the park through the jaws of the Temple of Moloch from the silent classic “Cabiria,” the film that introduced the world to the enduring strongman Maciste. The Maciste craze reached its peak in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, prior to the rise of the spaghetti western, the character appearing on American screens in the guise of Hercules, Samson, Atlas or whatever other mythological, Biblical or historical strongman you can think of. “Cabiria” was shot in Turin in 1914.
The studios, cofounded by Mussolini in 1937, became a creative hotbed for the Italian neorealist movement and directors such as Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica. Cinecittà also supplied lots and soundstages for American productions from “Ben-Hur” and “Cleopatra” to “The Gangs of New York,” “The Passion of the Christ” and “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.”
The park, which opened in July, was designed by three-time Academy Award-winner Dante Ferretti, with music supplied from the film scores of Ennio Morricone.
Of particular interest is Ennio’s Creek, built on a spaghetti western motif, where Morricone’s music evokes the dusty, sundrenched terrain so memorably occupied by Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef. The attraction was introduced earlier this month.
Sounds an awful lot like “Westworld,” without the robots.
You can read more about it here, though you may have to hit the translate button:
http://www.cinecittaworld.it/set/ennios-creek-citta-di-frontiera/
In inglese:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cinecitta-world-theme-park-opens-721738