The closest thing we’ve had to Zorro since 2005’s The Legend of Zorro, with Antonio Banderas, is the upcoming Puss in Boots (with an animated Antonio Banderas). In this, the Golden Age of reboots, comes another tale of the masked swordsman via the pens of Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia. This retelling of Zorro’s origin will be based on the eponymous 2005 novel written by Isabel Allende.Federman and Scaia are well known for their work in television, scripting and producing such series as Jericho, Warehouse 13 and Human Target. They’re currently overseeing the new Charlie’s Angels series as supervising producers. Zorro will be the duo’s second film adaptation, having just completed River of Doubt, an account of Teddy Roosevelt’s 1914 journey down the Amazon River.Hit the jump for more on Zorro, including the synopsis of the novel.
News of the scriptwriters for Zorro comes by way of Deadline. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Zorro, he is a masked outlaw that was created in pulp comics nearly a century ago. Zorro, “the fox,†is the secret identity of Don Diego de la Vega, a nobleman who lives in the Spanish colony of 18th century California. Known for his light-hearted humiliation of his enemies and his trademark, sword-slashing “Z,†Zorro is one of fiction’s most beloved vigilantes. Spanning more than forty films and including many TV appearances, it’s no surprise that Zorro is returning to the silver screen. But who should play him? Should Banderas have a cameo?Here’s the synopsis for the origin novel, Zorro:
A swashbuckling adventure story that reveals for the first time how Diego de la Vega became the masked man we all know so well. 'Until that moment Diego had not been conscious of his dual personality, one part Diego de la Vega, elegant, affected, hypochondriac, and the other part El Zorro, audacious, daring, playful.' Born in southern California late in the 18th century, Diego de la Vega is a child of two worlds. His father is an aristocratic Spanish military man turned landowner; his mother, a Shoshone warrior. Diego learns from his maternal grandmother, White Owl, the ways of her tribe while receiving from his father lessons in the art of fencing and in cattle branding. It is here, during Diego's childhood, filled with mischief and adventure, that he witnesses the brutal injustices dealt out to Native Americans by European settlers and first feels the inner conflict of his heritage. At the age of sixteen, Diego is sent to Barcelona for a European education. In a country chafing under the corruption of Napoleonic rule, Diego follows the example of his celebrated fencing master and joins La Justicia, a secret underground resistance movement devoted to helping the powerless and the poor. With these tumultuous times as backdrop, Diego falls in love, saves the persecuted, and confronts for the first time a great rival who emerges from the world of privilege. Between California and Barcelona, the New World and the Old, the persona of Zorro is formed, a great hero is born and the legend begins. After many adventures -- duels at dawn, fierce battles with pirates at sea, and impossible rescues -- Diego de la Vega, aka. Zorro, returns to America to reclaim the hacienda on which he was raised and to seek justice for all who cannot fight for it themselves. [Amazon]
