Oh boy, do I not have a life at all! I love researching and discovering really obscure things, especially if it is things I’m super passionate about. This time, I’ve discovered probably the most obscure thing thus far, an Italian short film from 2003 based on JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and I’d love to share it with you all!
Note: long, but interesting post ahead!!
While browsing, I stumbled upon an interview for a short film named “Le Bizzarre Avventure di JoJo: Gravity Vision” on an old Italian JoJo fansite. Apparently, it was a real project with around 30 people working on the film, lasting 12 minutes and was screened at the Cinema Teatro Italia in Macerata, Italy in 2003. It was set to have the full version of the film released online around March 20-25, 2003 along with its on DVD release soon afterwards. Depending on the success of the project, there were plans for a continuation to be made.
Unfortunately, there was never a full release made available to the public and the website where info and updates were posted had been gone (I used the Wayback Machine, but everything is dead from what’s left of the site). I found a blog post from 2014 written by a man who supposedly worked on the film, stating that he had attempted multiple times to add his work onto the Italian JoJo Wikia, but had been denied in all his attempts. He does state that he is willing to provide more information on the movie by request, so if anyone knows Italian and is interested, I’d say go for it (links will be listed below)!
From what we do know about the film via the interview, Gravity Vision takes heavy inspiration from JoJo, and is a tribute to the series in its own unique way. Its goal was to combine elements from all part of the series (at the time), with the stone mask from Phantom Blood, an old adventurer (?) from Battle Tendency (presumably based on Old Joseph), stands from Stardust Crusaders, the arrows from Diamond is Unbreakable, the setting and Italian characters from Vento Aureo/Golden Wind, and a stand based on the title of the series along with a woman protagonist from Stone Ocean.
The interview kept away from spoiling the plot and other details of the film, but mentions that the main character is named Giorgia Gabbana (who was most likely named off of Giorno Giovanna) with her stand Gravity Grave, which is shown in the trailer protecting her. The setting takes place in an unnamed Italian town in an unspecified time period. Besides the stone mask, stands, and the arrow, the movie has its own original script and characters. CGI animation was also used, mainly for the stands and possible fighting scenes.
I wish I could find more on this because it’s so odd, yet fascinating? I thought the American ripoff comic Diesel was as obscure as we could get in anything JoJo related. I’m not sure how many people would be interested in seeing the whole movie, but it would be cool if we could all one day watch it in full!
