Editing Emilio Salgari (section)

==Films==

Historians debate the first film adaptation of a Salgari novel. ''[[Cabiria]]'', directed by Giovanni Pastrone bears many similarities to Emilio Salgari's 1908 adventure novel ''Cartagine in Fiamme'' (Carthage is Burning). Salgari was never credited, and [[Gabriele D'Annunzio]] was billed as the official screenwriter. D'Annunzio had been brought on board to help revise the film once it had been shot, earning the credit by changing the title to ''Cabiria,'' changing the name of some of the characters, and rewriting the captions from what Pastrone had done. The three-hour epic movie with its cast of thousands created a sensation throughout Italy. It pioneered epic screen production and foreshadowed the work of [[D.W. Griffith]], [[Sergei Eisenstein]] and others.

Vitale De Stefano brought Salgari's pirates to the big screen in the early 1920s with a series of five films shot over two years, including ''Il corsaro nero'' [[The Black Corsair]] and ''La Regina dei caraibi'' (The Queen of the Caribbean). [[Lex Barker]] appeared as the tiger hunter Tremal-Naik in the 1955 B-movie ''The Mystery of The Black Jungle''. Sandokan was played by Hercules star [[Steve Reeves]] in ''[[Sandokan the Great (film)|Sandokan the Great]]'' and ''The [[Pirates of Malaysia]] aka The Pirates of The Seven Seas''. [[Ray Danton]] played the pirate in Luigi Capuano's ''Sandokan Against the Leopard of Sarawak'' (aka ''Throne of Vengeance''.) and later reprised the role in ''Sandokan Fights Back'' (aka ''The Conqueror and the Empress'').

The 1944 Mexican film ''[[El corsario negro]]'' is based on his novel ''[[The Black Corsair]]''.

The 1965 adventure film ''La montagna di luce'' (''The Mountain of Light'') was loosely based on Salgari's 1902 novel of the same title, which referred to the name of the [[Koh-i-Noor]] diamond. The film was released in English under several titles, the most commonly known of which was ''[[Jungle Adventurer]]''. One of the alternate titles used for a later re-release was ''Sandok'', an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of Salgari's fictional pirate [[Sandokan]], even though neither the novel, nor the film had anything to do with Sandokan's character or the settings of his adventures (the plot revolved around a fictitious attempt to steal the Koh-i-Noor, and took place in 19th-century [[India]]).

In 1976, the landmark [[Sandokan (TV series)|''Sandokan'' TV miniseries]] played throughout Europe. It starred [[Kabir Bedi]] in the title role and attracted more than 80 million viewers a week. Bedi has been considered the quintessential [[Sandokan]] ever since. He later reprised the role in the late 1990s in a series of sequels.