Biographie
Dardano Sacchetti was born in Rome, Italy, in 1944. From a young age, he developed a passion for films, particularly American horror movies imported into Italy, starting with Them! (1954). By the age of 16, his favorite film was My Life to Live. In 1966, Sacchetti joined a local theater troupe, touring Italy as an actor and playwright. During this time, he connected with several notable figures in the Italian film industry, which opened opportunities for him to write screenplays. He also worked as a film critic for the newspaper Cinema e Film, while maintaining his interests in theater and poetry.
In 1969, Sacchetti met a young Dario Argento, who was directing his debut film that would launch his career. Although their initial collaborative scripts were never produced, after the success of Argento's Bird with the Crystal Plumage, they worked together on the screenplay for Argento's next film, Cat o' Nine Tails. Sacchetti also contributed to the scripts of Argento's Inferno (1980), Demons (1985), and Demons 2 (1986). His work on Cat o' Nine Tails caught the attention of filmmaker Mario Bava, who hired him to write Bay of Blood (1971). Sacchetti continued collaborating with Bava until the director's death in 1980. He wrote the script for Shock (1977) and was developing a project titled Anomalia in 1979, which Roger Corman was set to produce, but the project was halted by Bava's sudden passing.
Sacchetti is best known for co-writing the script for Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2 (1979) (also known as Zombie), alongside his wife Elisa Briganti, though she remains uncredited. Fulci also enlisted Sacchetti for scripts on other films, including City of the Living Dead (1980), The House by the Cemetery (1981), The Beyond (1981), The New York Ripper (1982), and Manhattan Baby (1982). Beyond collaborations with Argento, Fulci, and both Mario and Lamberto Bava, Sacchetti wrote scripts for directors such as Umberto Lenzi, Ruggero Deodato, Stelvio Massi, Antonio Margheriti, Sergio Martino, and Damiano Damiani.
In recent years, as the Italian film industry has declined, Sacchetti's output has slowed. He continues to write for Italian television and occasional feature films, while also teaching screenwriting seminars at the University of Florence's Faculty of Arts and offering writing courses at other institutions to train future screenwriters.
