Way back in October of 1938 people erupted into a panic over a news broadcast done by one Orson Welles. You guys know where this is going right? I’m of course talking about the famous WAR OF THE WORLDS broadcast that hit radio airwaves in a series of news bulletins that actually had people believing we had an alien invasion on our hands.
Fast forward 73 years later and it seems things aren’t much different. A recent news report over in Italy has had similar effects to Orson Welles’ iconic broadcast and has proven that in a future with internet media and the world at our fingertips, one simple broadcast can still create a frenzy. I’m getting ahead of myself though… Let’s rewind.
You see a notable Italian news anchor, one Maria Cuffaro, recently put up a news report over on YouTube about a supposed alien invasion. In what is nothing more than a viral video for the upcoming Gianni Pacinotti film THE LAST EARTHLING (L’ULTIMO TERRESTRE), the news report had apparently caused panic over in Italy. Mission accomplished, eh?
The newsreader is a real TV journalist, Maria Cuffaro, who presents prime-time bulletins on the state-owned RAI network.
Without the trace of a smile, she reports that, following an emergency cabinet meeting, the government has issued a statement reassuring the country that the aliens do not pose any danger to the population and urging them not to stockpile food or water.
Rather less comfortingly, Cuffaro says there is no intention of interrupting essential services such as gas and electricity “for the moment”.
Still poker-faced, she goes on to tell viewers that the Vatican will soon make public previously secret passages in the Bible that forecast the arrival of extraterrestrials. And she quotes a priest as calling on the faithful to consult a fictitious encyclical, Adventus Marzianus.
RAI asked people to heed Cuffaro’s advice and not be panicked into hoarding — a call that may have been needed given the uncanny realism of the video extract: a broken sentence at the start shows the arrival of creatures from outer space is not the lead item, but has been pushed down the running order by injuries to two of the players in the Italian national football squad.
The video, found directly below along with a few other videos for THE LAST EARTHLING, already has over half a million views. Not too shabby for a sci-fi flick nobody had heard of until today, huh? THE LAST EARTHLING is sure to make a splash now when it hits the Venice Film Festival later this month.
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