Someone just needs to ‘Kill Paul [the] Octopus’

by Alex DiGiovanna
23, July 2010News4 Comments

paul the octopus movie
Really? A movie about a soccer predicting octopus? My first question is, how did an American filmmaker not pick this one up? Granted I’m extremely happy that it wasn’t an American but wow, well done China. I can’t say I expected to see a film that was based on the amazing German octopus that correctly predicted eight soccer (football) matches in the World Cup but I’m impressed to actually hear about one. The film entitled “Kill Paul Octopus” is going to be a comic suspense film about the most famous octopus in the world. Hit the jump to find out more.


Chinesefilms.cn had the scoop so I have decided to post some of their info here for your reading pleasure, that is if you like reading about a thriller based on a world cup predicting octopus.

The film was shot simultaneously with the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The cast has returned to Beijing to shoot the domestic scenes.


The film was originally named as “Ran Qing Shi Jie Bei” (The Legend of World Cup), but director Xiao Jiang changed the name when an octopus in Germany named Paul predicted the results of several football matches.


“We planned several topics to shoot about, like black horses, prediction results, gambling, misjudges, terrorism and football hooligans. And we chose to shoot the prediction results when the amazing prophet Paul appeared,” said Xiao Jiang.


Xiao Jiang said they have sent invitations to the aquarium in Germany inviting Paul to attend the film premiere in China. The octopus appearing in this film is an ‘actor’ who looks similar to Paul.



I know it is a tad weird but I’m curious to see how it turns out…even if it is horrible. What are your thoughts about the film? Leave them in the comments section please.

Alex DiGiovanna
View My Other Posts


  • Anononymouse

    I saw the film. It has a lot of in jokes based on famous personalities in China involved in match fixing scandals — with the crooked players and scathing critics playing themselves. This is really funny and clever.

    The bad thing is: the director assumes the rest of the world is like China, and the matches are all fixed. The director also trots out every ugly and ignorant stereotype in the book — which is not too much of a surprise for anyone who has lived in China for very long. That’s the way the world is if you are a mainland Chinese.

    • http://www.moviebuzzers.com Alex

      really. sounds very interesting, I hope it makes it over to the states at some point because I’m curious to see how stereotypical these stereotypes are lol. thanks for the heads up

  • Anononymouse

    I saw the film. It has a lot of in jokes based on famous personalities in China involved in match fixing scandals — with the crooked players and scathing critics playing themselves. This is really funny and clever.

    The bad thing is: the director assumes the rest of the world is like China, and the matches are all fixed. The director also trots out every ugly and ignorant stereotype in the book — which is not too much of a surprise for anyone who has lived in China for very long. That’s the way the world is if you are a mainland Chinese.

    • http://www.moviebuzzers.com Alex

      really. sounds very interesting, I hope it makes it over to the states at some point because I’m curious to see how stereotypical these stereotypes are lol. thanks for the heads up