ULTRAMAN: THE JUPITER EFFECT (1978) Earlier than Don Gult's project (see ULTRAMAN: HERO FROM THE STARS), Jeff Segal wrote a screenplay dubbed "Ultraman: the Jupiter Effect" in 1978. The plot of "Jupiter Effect" has the allignment of all the planets in our Solar System (which really happened in the early 1980s, and was the matter of much speculation, some thinking that this would...) causes major disasters around the world. Laying in wait is the evil Drax, who sends his monster army to invade the vunerable Earth -- now, its up to a NASA astronaut, who has been chosen to be a human host to a new Ultraman, to protect the planet. Eventually, things get so tough that the other Ultramen come in to lend a hand.

This was a widely distributed AP wire story, back in 1978 in the wake of SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE, but despite that, "Jupiter Effect" went unmade. Eventually, Segal went on to rewrite the final story-arc from THE ULTRAMAN animated series (from 1979) for the excellent US video adaptation called THE ADVENTURES OF ULTRAMAN, released by Family Home Entertainment back in 1982.

Entry written by August Ragone and Rafael C. Gonzalez