Leone's Colossus of Rhodes

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I saw The Colossus of Rhodes last month on the History channel. I'm no
big fan of the peplum genre, but seeing that it was Leone's first movie
as a director, I thought I'd give it a shot.
All in all, as far as the genre goes, it's better than most. It
features some impressive sets, and an injection of levity that's a
welcome relief to the usual pompus solemnties.
But it's the genesis of the film that's even more interesting...
(The following is an extract I translated from 'Conversations avec
Sergio Leone')
"A few days before filming began, I had a meeting with the associate
producer. He was wringing his hands, 'Tell me, Sergio, who'll do the
Colossus?' I answer 'The Architect'. His eyes open very wide. 'What
architect?'. Unperturbed, I continue: 'The architect that builds the
statue'. He's now getting more worried: 'What statue'?
I fill him in: 'The Colossus of Rhodes is a statue".
He panics: 'The Colosssu of Rhodes is a statue? He's not a beefy
muscleman, like Hercules?'
I calmly repeat: 'It's only a statue'.
And then, he started crying out: 'I'm ruined! RUINED! Putting all this
money into a film that's only about a statue! You're crazy. Here we
have Steve Reeves and all these bodybuilders, and you pick a statue?'
He was chocking. He was about to die. I wanted to reassure him. I
proposed 'But we can have action scenes that don't necessarily need
heroes that are Samson or Maciste.' No dice. His despair escalated. So
I changed tact.
'Do you want the Colossus to be able to walk on land and water? And
that he squishes people with his feet?'
He sighed with relief and said: 'You're a genius. We're saved'.