[1] Together with the dramas The Odyssey (1968), Eneide (1971), and Jesus of Nazareth (1977), Sandokan inaugurated the beginning of forms of co-production with Italian and foreign producers; in this way, in the seventies, a different articulation of fiction began to emerge which tended to go beyond the "scripted from published work" genre to expand towards new frontiers, calling on directors and intellectuals to renew and expand the offer of fiction or other genres of the TV schedule.
Along with his friend Yanez De Gomera (of Portuguese origin), Sandokan is now the ruler of the isle of Mompracem, a den of pirates who make constant attacks against British forces.
Their true inspiration was the general director Ettore Bernabei, who had long insisted on the idea of reducing Salgari's novels for the small screen.
[3] Being a good connoisseur of Emilio Salgari, literary father of Sandokan and of the novels of the pirates of Malaysia cycle, Sollima had learned that all the author's works, although equipped with an apparently simple narrative line, were very difficult to transpose onto television.
[5][9] For the subject, Sollima decided to base himself above all on The Tigers of Mompracem and The Pirates of Malaya, expanding some subplots (English colonial development, the affirmation of the empire of the white raja James Brooke and the love story between Sandokan and Marianna).
[5] After having set aside Mifune for the role of Sandokan, Sollima organized a vast and complex research plan to find the protagonist's interpreter.
The musical score for the series was composed and performed by Guido & Maurizio De Angelis under their most famous alias, Oliver Onions.