The Legend of Zorro

Out of the night
When the full moon is bright
Rides the horseman known as Zorro...

I don't remember exactly when my love of Zorro set in, but I watched the weekly TV adventures with Duncan Regehr on the original Family Channel. I also stayed up late too many times watching the wonderful Disney episodes with Guy Williams. So of course I had to see THE MASK OF ZORRO when it came out, and I loved it. It had its faults, but for the most part it was really entertaining.

Now, after several false starts, the sequel is finally in production. Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and director Martin Campbell are all back together again. Filming is taking place in Mexico in San Luis Potosi (hey, Alamo lovers, suppose we could get a cameo from "Flaca"?). At this point the release date is set for September 23, 2005, but that could change.

This time out the villain is being played by Rufus Sewell (the villain from A KNIGHT'S TALE). Alejandro and Elena are now married, and have a young son. The story involves some sort of evil plot to prevent California from becoming part of the United States. In an interesting twist on the Zorro legend, it's Zorro's son, rather than his father, who thinks the Don is just a useless dandy.

I'm sure this won't be a historical film in any real meaningful sense of the word, even though it's set in the past. But it's this kind of swashbuckler that gave a lot of us our love of history, and so I'm delighted to see movies like this being made.