Hollywood is putting together a movie that sounds way too wild to exist. The Old West is about to get a big dose of Spanish flair as Sony Pictures is officially working on a feature film based on the surprise comic book crossover “Django/Zorro.” That means the slave-turned-bounty hunter from Quentin Tarantino’s 2012 movie is teaming up with the famous masked swordsman.
According to new reports, the project is back on at Sony after years of being stuck in development hell. Tarantino is not going to direct, but he has given his approval. The writer stepping in is Brian Helgeland, who won an Oscar for ‘L.A. Confidential‘ and also wrote ‘Mystic River.‘
What is ‘Django/Zorro’ Comic Book Series About?
The movie comes from a seven-issue comic series released in 2014. Tarantino co-wrote it with comic writer Matt Wagner, and it was published by Dynamite Entertainment. The comic was sold as the “official sequel” to “Django Unchained.” This was the first time Tarantino allowed someone else to continue one of his stories outside of his own movies.
Here is the official synopsis for the comic. “Set several years after the events of Django Unchained, the story sees Django again pursuing evil men in his role as a bounty hunter. Taking to the roads of the American Southwest, he encounters the aged and sophisticated Diego de la Vega by sheer chance.”
What follows is a strange partnership. Django gets pulled into a fight to free local Native Americans from brutal slavery. He learns that slavery is not something that only happens to his people. At one point, he even puts on the Zorro mask himself.
Jamie Foxx and Antonio Banderas Casting Still Up in the Air
The movie has had a bumpy road. There was an attempt to make it happen in the late 2010s, but it stalled because of the pandemic and rights issues. Those problems seem to be solved now. Deadline says that Helgeland is writing a new story that follows the comic’s timeline, and the studio wants to respect the world Tarantino and Wagner built.
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No one knows who will be in the movie yet. It is unclear if Jamie Foxx will return to play Django Freeman. People are also guessing about which Zorro will show up. In the comic, Zorro is the older Don Diego de la Vega, played by Anthony Hopkins in “The Mask of Zorro.” However, fans really want Antonio Banderas to return. The actor has said before that he would love to play the role again.
Quentin Tarantino Gives His Blessing as He Moves Towards Retirement
For Tarantino, this is a new move, as he has repeatedly said he plans to retire after making ten movies. He now appears to be letting his cinematic worlds expand without him. Sony backed Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” and word is he is also helping develop that film’s spin-off, “The Adventures of Cliff Booth” with David Fincher. According to the trade reports, Tarantino has given his “blessing” for “Django/Zorro” to move ahead while he focuses on writing his first stage play.
The project is still in “early development.” There is no director or release date yet, but now that Helgeland is writing the script, the cowboy and the caballero are finally heading to a theater near you.
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