CBS Studios are developing a contemporary, female-led “reimagining” of the classic masked vigilante ‘Zorro’ for CBS it has been revealed.
US producers are hoping “third time’s the charm” as this idea has been tried twice before, at NBC and The CW. Neither of those moved forward, so now it has landed at CBS with a new creative team. John Hlavin (The Shield, The Man Who Fell To Earth) joins Rebecca Rodriguez (Snowpiercer, Doom Patrol) to co-write this version.
In this modern retelling, a young Latinx woman learns that her father, who passed away long ago, was the legendary hero Zorro. Embracing his masked identity, she steps up to protect her Austin, Texas community from the wealthy elites trying to exploit them.
The idea of a gender-switched version of ‘Zorro’ first popped up back in 2020 at NBC, initially with writer/director Rebecca Rodriguez and her brother, Robert Rodriguez, attached as writer/exec producer, with Sofia Vergara attached to produce via her LatinWe company. There was some shuffling around in that version with a script eventually coming from Alfredo Barrios Jr (Shelter, Burn Notice). When that didn’t move forward, Vergara and Barrios Jr dropped off the project, and it popped up again at The CW, with Rodriguez siblings joined by ‘Mayans M.C.’s Sean Tretta on writing duties, and Howard T. Owens’ (Charmed, Wireless, Lore) Propagate producing. Again, that didn’t move forward, but has now emerged again at CBS.
This latest iteration sees Rebecca Rodriguez and John Hlavin write the script, with Robert Rodriguez and Ben Silverman (The Tudors, The Office, Ugly Betty) exec producing, alongside Rodney Ferrell and Owens for Propagate. Geoff Clark, Eric Bromberg, Jay Weisleder and John Gertz produce for ZPI, who hold the rights to Zorro.
Originally created in 1919 by Johnston McCulley, ‘Zorro’ continues to be a hot property for TV and film. There have been multiple versions over the years, including the 1920s films starring Douglas Fairbanks, the 90s/00s movies starring Antonio Banderas, the 1950s TV show starring Guy Williams, and various other live-action and animated series. Even now, a French series starring Jean Dujardin in the iconic mask has recently been released in some territories on Paramount+, and Wilmer Valderrama is developing a more traditional take on the vigilante for Disney+.
This version of ‘Zorro’ is classed as “in development” so we have no idea yet if it will move forward, but we’ll let you know if and when we hear more.
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