'Zorro' reboot shifts story from 20th Century to post-apocalyptic version of hero

“Zorro Reborn,” a reboot of the “Zorro” film series, will reportedly be set in a post-apocalyptic world, but will retain the essential elements that made the character popular. The franchise has been around since the 1920s and the most recent films featured Antonio Banderas in the lead role.

The forthcoming movie will show a futuristic hero and is set in the near future, according to a report by The Hollywood Reporter. Following the success of the post-apocalyptic film “Mad Max: Fury Road,” the new “Zorro” movie will reportedly focus on a similar timeline.

The report notes that the mask-wearing character has been traditionally seen fighting for the rights of peasants and farmers in California. The upcoming movie is expected to keep this idea of a “masked and caped stranger taking on tyrants.”

The theatres in the U.S. first showed the character in the 1920s (“The Mark of Zorro”) featuring Douglas Fairbanks as the lead star. “Zorro” has since been in multiple versions of films and the most recent one was “The Legend of Zorro” in 2005 starring Banderas as the masked hero and fellow cast member Catherine Zeta-Jones (Eléna de la Vega) as the character’s wife. The movie was directed by Martin Campbell.

The principal photography of the new “Zorro” film is said to begin in March 2016 at the Pinewood Dominican Republic Studios. The movie will be financed by Lantica Media and will be produced in partnership with Sobini Films. A director hasn’t been chosen yet for the movie and the producers are said to be currently looking for someone to helm the project.

“This has been a 15-year journey filled with ups and downs, but it has remained my passion project over the years," Mark Amin, CEO of Sobini, exclusively told The Hollywood Reporter . Antonio Gennari, the CEO of Lantica Media, added that every generation has had their version of the hero and that they are “proud” to introduce a “new Zorro” to the audience.

Gael Garcia Bernal was supposed to play the lead role in the “Zorro” reboot, according to an earlier report by Cinema Blend . The Mexican actor is known for being a cast member in “The Motorcycle Diaries,” “Y Tu Mamá También,” “Letters to Juliet,” “Babel,” “The Loneliest Planet” and “Mozart in the Jungle.”

The lead actor in “Zorro Reborn” has not been announced yet. David W. Higgins and Cami Winikoff will be the executive producers of the movie and Albert Martinez Martin will be overseeing the production.

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