Looks like 20th Century Fox is hoping to jumpstart another film franchise with its movie reboot Zorro Reborn. The studio is developing a darker re-imagining of Zorro, in which the masked hero will be a vigilante roaming a bleak, post-apocalyptic landscape.
According to a /Film report, Zorro Reborn will star a younger actor as the lead, who may not even be recognizable as the Zorro most of us know and love. The character will be “less a caped crusader for justice than a one-man vigilante force bent on revenge.” Sounds like Fox’s Zorro will be a bizarro version of the original.
That’s only the beginning of the differences. The classic Zorro of TV and books (and even the Antonio Banderas version Mask of Zorro and its sequel) is based in Spanish Colonial California. This Western-style reboot is set in a post apocalyptic wasteland, with “echoes of both Sergio Leone and No Country for Old Men.” Some darker re-imaginings have been very successful (think Batman Begins); but Batman was a dark vigilante-type super hero to begin with. Zorro is kind of family friendly.
First-time director Rpin Suwannath will take on the job of this drastic re-imagining. His experience is as a previsualization specialist, and he’s worked on the X-Men films and The Matrix. The script was written by creative duo Lee Shipman and Brian McGreevy. They have another upcoming reboot under their belt with the Dracula-inspired Harker.
How will this twisted Western concept work when the classic Zorro is a cheeky nobleman-in-disguise who protects his people from villainous officials? Such a radical manipulation of Zorro mythology has me nervous. What do you think?