If you like films that combine action and adventure, you will be sure to have heard of 'The Mask of Zorro'. The great Hollywood adaptation of the original stories of the beginning of the last century has left its imprint or, more appropriately, a mark in the form of a 'Z' in our memory.
In this classic, Don Diego de la Vega, after more than twenty years disguised and fighting as Zorro, finds his successor, a young bandit called Alejandro Murieta. With his sword, cape and his famous Z, the new Zorro will fight to defend the poor, the weak and avenge the injustices committed by those in power.
The film was well received, and found itself with a sequel seven years later to the delight of those who were left wanting more, in the form of 'The Legend of Zorro'. However, in this article we are going to concentrate on the original, with a tribute in the form of 7 interesting facts about this action packed film.
1 Don Diego de la Vega
The role of Diego was an extremely important part in the film, and we cant imagine anyone other than Anthony Hopkins playing the character. However, there was a point where the actor wasn't going to participate in the film. Hopkins had serious back pain, but a laser operation put him back in place and he was able to accept the role. The famous Sean Connery was also in the running for the role of Diego.
2 Experienced swordsmen
Antonio Banderas, in order to prepare for his role, improved his sword fighting skills thanks to Bob Anderson, who in his day trained the likes of Errol Flynn. Anderson admitted that Banderas was the best swordsmen that he had taught since the legendary Flynn. The actor took it so seriously that he even spent four months training with the Spanish olympic team.
3 Inspiring Batman
Anthony Hopkins role in the original 'Zorro' stories would have been that of Bernardo, who was a butler. In fact, the hero with the mask, a few years later would be the inspiration for the birth of Batman. Also, the character of Alfred Pennyworth was created, a man who serves as a loyal butler to Batman. Hopkins was also offered the role of the butler in 'Batman Begins'
4 Antonio 'The Brave'
We have already mentioned Antonio Banderas' desire to make the perfect and credible sword fighting scenes, but there is more to it. The actor insisted on doing his own dangerous scenes so the film would come across as authentic. The only scene where Banderas needed a stunt double was when he jumped on a horse stolen from one of the guards.
5 Elena Shakira?
It has never really been mentioned, but Shakira was one of the women who was extremely close in landing the role of Elena. In the end, Catherine Zeta Jones beat her to it. It is said that the man who chose the actress for the role was the infamous
Steven Spielberg, who liked Zeta-Jones' role in the 'Titanic' mini-series in 1996.
6 Script Rewriting
In the book 'Tales from the Script', written by Peter Hanson and Paul Robert Herman, the story is told of how director and screenwriter David S. Ward was in charge of re-writing 85% of the film's dialogue. However, none of this is mentioned in the films credits, which caused a fair bit of controversy even enough to make it on the front of the Los Angeles Times.
7 Shuffling directors
By the sounds of it, before Martin Campbell was put in charge of directing the film, there were a number of others that were in line to be in charge too. Spielberg, executive producer of the film, rejected the role of director due to agenda issues as it clashed with his film 'Saving Private Ryan'. Robert Rodriguez also nearly landed the job as director but the producers didn't share his more violent vision of the film's plot.
