Everybody loves Zorro. And what’s not to love? He’s debonair, handy with a rapier and doubly so with a snappy one-liner, always gets the mujeres, and pulls off an eyemask like nobody’s business.
The latino swashbuckler of repute has been portrayed on film dozens of times by a neverending parade of lotharios, from Antonio Banderas in 1998’s The Mask of Zorro to George Hamilton in the profoundly offensive queer comedy Zorro, The Gay Blade to Douglas Frey in the bizarre yet strangely titillating The Erotic Adventures of Zorro. The character has got a rich history, but what of his history… in the future? The vigilante’s many adventures have yet to take him into the world of tomorrow, but a long-gestating project newly picked up by Lantica Media and Sobini films will right that grievous wrong.
An exclusive from The Hollywood Reporter has announced that the storied crimefighter will don his mask once more for Zorro Reborn, a post-apocalyptic reboot of the traditional Zorro mythos. Sobini CEO Mark Amin claims to have spent the better part of fifteen years lobbying for this film, which is sadly titled neither Zorrogeddon nor Zorropocalypse, to be made.
The film will transpose Zorro’s steal-from-the-rich, give-to-the-poor ethics to a tyrannical dystopia in a distant future, in which Zorro rises up to challenge the technological overlords. The hunt has begun for talent, with a leading man and director required before this project develops legs. But surely, they won’t have too much trouble. For reasons beyond the cognitive faculties of anyone but studio executives, Hollywood will always shine kindly upon works set in dystopian futures. The only thing audiences love more than Zorro is the looming threat of political subjugation or total annihilation!
