Vampire in Venice

Producer Augusto Caminito originally hired director Maurizio Lucidi, who shot a few crowd scenes in Venice before the script had even been completed. Caminito decided that the project needed another director and fired Lucidi (paying him his full salary), hiring Pasquale Squitieri to write and direct the picture. However, Squitieri's screenplay proved too expensive to shoot so Caminito decided to stop working with him (he nevertheless paid him his full, hefty, salary). Shooting had already been postponed several times and the Italian TV network which co-produced the film was getting nervous. So Caminito hired a third director, B-movie veteran Mario Caiano, and shooting could start. On his first day, Klaus Kinski got into a violent argument with Caiano and refused to work with him. The director then agreed to leave the set (after being paid his full salary), the third director to leave the picture before principal photography was complete. Facing disaster, producer Augusto Caminito then decided to direct the film himself so he wouldn't have to pay another director. Since he had almost no directing experience, he was helped by his assistant Luigi Cozzi. Kinski also reportedly directed some scenes himself.

While reading from the old text, Christopher Plummer pronounces the word "compare" as "com-pair," following English pronunciation. However, the Latin or Italian word "compare" should be pronounced "com-pa-reh," with each syllable distinctly enunciated and the final "e" softly pronounced. In Italian, "compare" means "godfather" or "companion," and the mispronunciation is particularly noticeable, given the historical and linguistic context of the text.

Featured in FantastiCozzi (2016)