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In 2007, an Australian film collective called Alrugo Entertainment shot a trailer for a movie that didn't exist. Italian Spiderman, a parody of 1960s and '70s Italian action films, was filmed on a single roll of 16mm film in one day. It went viral within weeks.
Director Dario Russo took the trailer to the South Australian Film Corporation and landed a $9,500 investment to expand it into a ten-episode series, in which Italian Spiderman fights a supervillain named Captain Maximum who can turn into a snake, out-surfs him with the help of summoned penguins, and eventually grows to giant size to save the city. Alrugo Entertainment dissolved in May 2010.
In 2018, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller wanted to include the character. Marvel said no. Co-director Joaquim Dos Santos recalled: "We tried for Italian Spiderman at some point. Marvel was like, 'We don't know what you're talking about, dude. That's not ours,' so yeah…"
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