They Call Me Jeeg

They Call Me Jeeg
Italian theatrical poster
Directed byGabriele Mainetti
Written byNicola Guaglianone [it]
Menotti
Produced byGabriele Mainetti
StarringClaudio Santamaria
Luca Marinelli
Ilenia Pastorelli
CinematographyMichele D'Attanasio
Edited byFederico Conforti
Andrea Maguolo
Music byMichele Braga
Gabriele Mainetti
Production
companies
Goon Films, Rai Cinema
Distributed byLucky Red (Italy)
Uncork'd Entertainment (U.S.)
Release date
Running time
112 minutes
CountryItaly
LanguageItalian / Romanesco dialect
Budget€1.7 million
Box office€6 million[1]

They Call Me Jeeg (Italian: Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot, transl. "They called him Jeeg Robot"; Japanese: 皆はこう呼んだ、「鋼鉄ジーグ」, romanized: Mina wa kō yonda, "Kōtetsu Jīgu", transl. "Everybody called [him] Steel Jeeg") is a 2015 Italian superhero film directed by Gabriele Mainetti and starring Claudio Santamaria in the lead role.[2][3] The plot concerns a lonely misanthropic crook named Enzo, who gets superhuman strength after being affected by radioactive waste in the Tiber waters.

The film is a tribute to the anime and manga series Steel Jeeg (Jeeg robot d'acciaio in Italy, where it is very popular) by Gō Nagai, from which takes up some thematics;[4] the title is an in-joke based on the Alessia character who believes that the hero of the anime, Hiroshi Shiba, exists in the real world, and she mistakes Enzo for him.[4] The title is also a reference to the spaghetti western film They Call Me Trinity (Lo chiamavano Trinità).

It received largely positive critical reviews and was nominated for several film industry awards, including seventeen David di Donatello, winning eight. The film was also one of seven films on a shortlist to be selected as the Italian entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards,[5] but the film Fuocoammare was chosen instead.[6]

After a successful run in Italian theaters in 2016, the movie got a limited release in the U.S. starting 17 March 2017 by Uncork'd Entertainment.[7][8]

  1. ^ "They Call Me Jeeg". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  2. ^ Weissberg, Jay (5 November 2015). "Film Review: 'They Call Me Jeeg'". Variety. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  3. ^ Montini, Franco (17 October 2015). "Al Festival del Cinema Santamaria il supereroe 'Jeeg Robot'". La Repubblica (in Italian). Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  4. ^ a b "Jeeg Robot: il mito degli Anime che ha ispirato il primo supereroe italiano". 21 February 2016. Archived from the original on 2 March 2016.
  5. ^ "Sette film per l'Oscar straniero. Il 26/9 si sa quale è il titolo italiano in corsa". Spettacoli - La Repubblica (in Italian). 16 September 2016. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  6. ^ Ugolini, Chiara (26 September 2016). "I migranti di 'Fuocoammare' in corsa per gli Oscar". La Repubblica (in Italian). Retrieved 26 September 2016.
  7. ^ Frater, Patrick (10 May 2016). "Uncork'd Makes Switch From Genre to Foreign-Language Distribution". Variety. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
  8. ^ https://www.laemmle.com/films/index/42042/2017-03-18?modal&replace#get-tickets [dead link‍]