Steven Spielberg warned Antonio Banderas of CGI’s rise on ‘Zorro’ set
Steven Spielberg warned Antonio Banderas of the imminent rise of CGI back on the set of 1998 film The Mask of Zorro.
Celebrating the 25th anniversary in a recent interview, Banderas reflected on the Martin Campbell-directed action-adventure film – which was produced by Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment – and how the latter told him that “things are going to change”.
“Steven Spielberg said to me once when we were shooting, ‘This is probably going to be one of the last Westerns shot in the way the Westerns were shot in the old days, with real scenes with real horses, where everything is real, [real] sword fighting, no CGI.’ Everything was [practical],” Banderas told Yahoo Entertainment.
“And he said, ‘But things are going to change. They’re going to change and they’re gonna change fast. And so you should be proud of this movie.’ And I am, probably even more now than at the time that I was doing it. I don’t know if I was absolutely conscious when I was doing Zorro that it was going to have an impact,” Banderas added. “The impact that it’s had, and especially after 25 years… It was a very beautiful adventure movie with a lot of ingredients that made it shine in a very beautiful way. I have nothing but good memories.”
Banderas and co-star Catherine Zeta Jones reprised their roles in 2005 sequel The Legend of Zorro – which was much less successful at the box office – but said that he’d still been approached about ideas for a third instalment.
“I’ve had people approaching with different ideas. Obviously if I do another movie now, I would play the [mentor] character that Anthony Hopkins did in the first version, I [would] be the character that passes the torch to the new Zorro, which would be great, just to do so,” he said.
“But you know, if it comes, great. If it doesn’t, you know, the other two are there forever.”
Earlier this year, Banderas opened up about experiencing a heart attack in 2017, saying that “it was like putting glasses on and seeing what was important”.
Meanwhile, Spielberg also predicted an “implosion” in the film industry 10 years ago, whereby the director suggested that a succession of high-budget box offices failures could result in a dramatic shift in ticket prices.
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Hollie Geraghty
NME
