Sci-Fi ‘Zorro’ Reboot Casts ‘Flashpoint’ Star Kiersey Clemons Opposite Gael Garcia Bernal
Zorro may have finally met his match.
Jonás Cuarón’sZorroreboot cast has addedFlashpointandDopeactressKiersey Clemons.Clemons will play the female lead inZ, the near-future reimagining of the classic swashbuckler.Varietyreports that theZorroreboot has cast Clemons to trade barbs withGael Garcia Bernal(Mozart in the Jungle), who will play the famous masked hero.ZproducerMark Aminpraised Clemons' casting toScreenDaily, who first reported the news, saying:
Zwill be written and directed by Cuarón and financed by Lantica Media, withAnne-Marie Rossof Pantelion International shopping the pic in Berlin and UTA Independent Film Group representing domestic rights. The project wasfirst announced in 2016with Bernal attached as the lead, but progress has been slow for the reboot.However, Zis intended to start filming as soon as this June, according to reports from ScreenDaily. But the project has been met with numerous delays — it previously planned to start shooting in the Dominican Republic in both the summer and the fall of 2016, but those plans fell through.Zwill be a huge departure from past adaptations of the pulp hero, who was first created by writer Johnston McCulley in 1919. A dashing masked vigilante, Zorro is the alter ego of nobleman Don Diego de la Vega who fights corruption and defends the poor and indigenous people of California. He’s received multiple silver screen adaptations, with Douglas Fairbanks, Guy Williams, and Antonio Banderas all donning the mask and sabre. But all those feature film adaptations have remained loyal to the pulp tales where the witty hero was born.Zlooks to transport Zorro to the near-future, possibly to fight in a more science-fiction-inspired setting.
At 24, Clemons is notably much younger than Bernal (39 years old), but her youth may be an indicator of the approach Cuarón is taking withZ.Fresh-faced twenty-somethings have often been the poster children for YA sci-fi franchises, and the few plot details we know aboutZsuggest that the film is going in that direction.
