The Mask of Zorro

Martin Campbell turned the job down three times. He says he did not like the script, accepted only after Steven Spielberg rang him, then sat that evening with his agent and lawyer, head in hands, calling it the worst mistake he had ever made. The chair had been Robert Rodriguez’s; he left over a budget the studio would not meet. Sean Connery was the first choice for Don Diego; Anthony Hopkins came in a month before shooting. Spielberg put Catherine Zeta-Jones forward after seeing her in a Titanic miniseries. The real investment went into swordplay. Fight director Bob Anderson drilled the three leads in Mexico, ten hours a day for two months of pre-production. Anderson had fenced for Britain at the 1952 Olympics, entered film that same year coaching Errol Flynn, and wore Darth Vader’s helmet for the lightsaber duels in two of the original Star Wars films. The Academy side is all sound: nominations in Sound and Sound Effects Editing, neither won, both going to Saving Private Ryan. A good fit if you want the school that trained Errol Flynn handed straight to Antonio Banderas. Not for viewers who expect the California on screen to be real; the hacienda and town were built from nothing in Tlaxcala, the bulk of the film at the Churubusco studios in Mexico City.