Eleven years ago, Quentin Tarantino — master of cinema-adjacent side questing — and co-writer Matt Wagner unleashed comic book miniseries Django/Zorro upon the world. An unlikely Django Unchained sequel, the comics brought together gunslinging bounty hunter Django Freeman and legendary masked swordsman Zorro in a seven-part crossover event that saw the duo teaming up to kick ass, take names, and free slaves. Now, per Variety‘s reporting, Sony has revived plans for a Django/Zorro movie, even going so far as to hire an Oscar-winning screenwriter to pen the film: L.A. Confidential scribe Brian Helgeland.
Now, if some distant alarm bells are ringing, telling you that you’ve heard something about a Django/Zorro movie before then that’d be because you have. Back in 2019, comedian Jerrod Carmichael signed on to write the film, with Django Unchained star Jamie Foxx publicly declaring his interest in returning to the iconic role of Django and Antonio Banderas — who played Zorro in both The Mask Of Zorro and The Legend Of Zorro movies — later confirming that Tarantino had approached him at the 2020 Oscars about the idea of donning the sword master’s mask once more. Regardless of the enthusiasm from all parties however, the project ended up falling by the wayside… until today’s unexpected update.
At this point, it’s unclear whether Foxx and/or Banderas will have any involvement in the movie Brian Helgeland’s writing, or indeed exactly what that film will look like. The comics see Django become Zorro’s bodyguard, with Diego de la Vega essentially assuming the Dr. King Schultz role as the pair work together to free indigenous people in the American Southwest from slavery. That being said, Tarantino isn’t writing or directing Django/Zorro, and his collaborator on the comics Matt Wagner isn’t either. Also, Variety‘s understanding is that this film is set to tell an all-new story with the iconic characters — even if their respective moral missions and areas of expertise give us a fairly good idea what that team-up will ultimately look like.
At this stage, with no director attached or new/returning stars confirmed, Django/Zorro still has some way to go before we’re actually seated in a multiplex for a cinematic crossover event quite unlike any other. But now that Helgeland’s aboard and Sony are clearly keen to get this thing going again, let’s just say that they had our curiosity, and now they have our attention…
