The History of Zorro
Johnston McCulley first brought Zorro to life in a 1919 pulp fiction serial.
Inspired by McCulley’s Zorro, silent film star Douglas Fairbanks became the silver screen’s first swashbuckling action hero portraying ZORRO in the 1920 film, The Mark of Zorro.
In 1925, Douglas Fairbanks returned to star in the sequel to The Mark of Zorro, Don Q, Son of Zorro.
McCulley continued writing more than 60 stories featuring his masked hero, Zorro, over the next 40 years.
Throughout the 1930’s and 40’s, ZORRO captured the imagination of audiences as he fought for justice in the Republic Studios serials. Tyrone Power became the next truly iconic silver screen Zorro, following in Fairbanks’ footsteps, when 20th Century Fox remade The Mark of Zorro in 1940.
In 1957, Disney’s ZORRO television series premiered, starring Guy Williams and became a worldwide sensation.
In the early 1960’s, Zorro character was adopted by the expanding Italian film industry. The masked hero also appeared in Mexican, Spanish, French and Belgian productions.
The wave of international Zorro film productions reached its peak in 1974, with the release of the Italian/French production of ZORRO, starring Alain Delon. Zorro entered the 1990’s with 88 episodes of the New World television series starring Duncan Regher as the masked hero.
The 1998 blockbuster The Mask of Zorro starred Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins and introduced Catherine Zeta-Jones. The film grossed $250m worldwide.
A sequel, The Legend of Zorro premiered October 30, 2005.
ZORRO FEATURE FILMS IN DEVELOPMENT!
Jonas Cuaron (Gravity co-writer) is set to direct the futuristic film: “Z”
A Django/Zorro crossover film from Quentin Tarantino is on the fast- track at Columbia Pictures – a sequel to both Django Unchained and The Legend of Zorro!
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