Swirling capes and swishing swords are looking like the new trend – or perhaps we should say re-trend – as following on the heels of the new Three Musketeers and fresh interest in The Lone Ranger, 20th Century Fox is apparently planning a futuristic version of masked hero Zorro with Zorro Reborn.
Zorro hasn’t swished his sword on the big screen for six years now, ever since the Antonio Banderas-led Legend of Zorro in 2005 failed to recapture the box office magic of 1998’s Mask of Zorro. But according to the LA Times, Fox thinks it might just have a take that can rehabilitate the character.
Lee Shipman and Brian McGreevy, whose Dracula-adjacent Harker script now has Jaume Collet-Serra and Warner Bros. attached, have taken Johnston McCulley’s hero and transported him from his usual 19th century California/Mexico setting to a barren, post-apocalyptic future, where, one assumes, there’s a lot of easy-to-find desert terrain in which to set a new adventure.
While the studio has staunchly refused to comment, there is apparently already a director, with “pre-visualisation specialist” (essentially creating the images and animatics to show directors what complicated effects sequences will roughly look like on screen) Rpin Suwannath stepping up to direct. Though he hasn’t held the job before, he’s worked on The Matrix sequels, the X-Men films including First Class, Serenity and a wealth of other projects, so he’s rubbed shoulders with some experienced directors. Looks like we’re going to find out if his previous job was enough training to translate into the big gig.
This one appears to have been cooking for at least a year now, with Sobini Films spearheading the developing and hatching the deal with Fox. But this is the first time that the setting has been revealed. Now the main question will be – who’s going to take over the mask, cape and sword and start carving Z shapes across a dangerous future landscape?