Remember last April when we reported on Fox’s plans to make a new ZORRO film set in a post-apocalyptic future? Ah, how we laughed back then! We were so young, so naive.
Well, Fox wasn’t joking. They’ve now found an actor to play the iconic lead character and, surprisingly, they landed a great one. Variety says Mexican star Gael Garcia Bernal will don the snazzy black mask and cape (if he still wears that in the future).
The film, written by Lee Shipman and Brian McGreevy, still needs a director. Before Bernal’s casting, I wouldn’t have expected much but now that they’ve got a strong performer in the lead role, who knows? Maybe they’ll hire a terrific director too. Maybe this movie will actually become something I want to see. I mean, I do love post-apocalyptic stories and who doesn’t get a kick out of Zorro?
Here’s how The LA Times described the project back in April. Still sounds silly right? However, the addition of Bernal gets a big thumbs up from me.
Unlike many of the previous Zorros (real name: Don Diego de la Vega) brandishing whips and swords, the hero of the new installment will live in the future — specifically a desolate and post-apocalyptic one, according to a person familiar with the film who asked not to be identified. A Fox spokeswoman declined to comment.
In this version, Zorro will be less a caped crusader for justice than a one-man vigilante force bent on revenge, in a western story that has echoes of both Sergio Leone and “No Country for Old Men.
