When we think Zorro, we usually think about a 19th-century swashbuckling hero all dressed in black, wearing a mask and a cape, who goes around with his rapier slashing his trademark Z on the bad guys' chests—not about Mad Max or Marvel's The Punisher.
But that's what the studio seems to be aiming for in an upcoming reboot of the franchise.
Titled Zorro Reborn, the reboot is being considered by 20th Century Fox. The plan is to remove the title character of Zorro from his historical setting of California or Mexico and drop him in the middle of a post-apocalyptic future.
The L.A. Times reports:
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.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 andNo Country for Old Men.
Apparently, a Fox spokeswoman declined to comment on this.
Can we say how wrong we think the whole thing is?
Zorro is not Mad Max. It's generally supposed to be a fun, swashbuckling story, with a beloved hero who does his best to help the poor native people of California against their Spanish oppressors.
Will they at least keep the main basic context, even if Zorro's pitched into a futuristic wasteland? Should we even call this new reboot Zorro?
Written by screenwriters Lee Shipman and Brian McGreevy—the guys are also behind another reboot of another famous character (that most famous vampire, Dracula) titled Harker over ar Warner Bros.—Zorro Reborn will be directed by little-known Rpin Suwannath, a previsualization specialist, who's worked on a few of the X-Men, Matrix and Chronicles of Narnia films.
So what's next now, Robin Hood in space? (Oh wait, there WAS a cartoon about that in the late 1960s called Rocket Robin Hood; we're still a bit scarred by it, but at least we remember it as kinda fun.)
Guess all we can do now is wait and see.
What do YOU think of this idea to bring Zorro into a future, post-apocalyptic world?
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