This August is the 100thAnniversary of Zorro and we thought you may find the swashbuckling icon of interest for a story and would like to offer John Gertz (CEO and President Zorro Productions, Inc., exec producer on all new Zorro films and TV Series), and Scott Cherrin (Zorro historian) for interviews to chat about the historic anniversary and to take a closer look at one of the most iconic entertainment properties. There is a Comic Con panel (Thursday July 18, 2019 7:30pm - 8:30pm Room 24ABC) if you wanted to check it out.
Zorro came to life on the silver screen through the creative genius of silent film star Douglas Fairbanks Sr. who wrote, produced and starred as Zorro in a film he titled, The Mark of Zorro. It premiered in 1920, just a year after the publication of The Curse of Capistrano, by Johnston McCulley on which it was based. The film reached worldwide recognition, and the rest is history.
From the development of the new Zorro movies and TV Series to The Mark of Zorro: 100 Years of the Masked Avenger Art Book (2019)and ongoing monthly comic book adventures from American Mythology, we have art and product through the past century that can be highlighted and showcase how the character has evolvedthrough multiple iterations from male and female (Lady Zorro, Zorro’s Black Whip).
There’s also a new Django/Zorro movie just announced at Sony Pictures based on the comic books written by Quentin Tarantino, a futuristic Zorro film at STX Entertainment with a female heroine leaving the mark of the Z, Broadway Musical coming in 2021 (score by the Gipsy Kings, and already having opened all over the world including in London, Paris, Moscow, Amsterdam, Germany, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sao Paolo, etc.), a new big budget series for a top streaming service starring one of France’s most famous actors in the title role, a modern day female Zorro series for a major basic cable network, plus products such as Zorro Whiskey & Tequila, Zorro Escape Rooms, slot machines, games, action figures, videogames, costumes and much, much, more.
Fun Facts About Zorro
· Zorro is a fictional character created in 1919 by American pulp writer Johnston McCulley
· The character first appeared in McCulley’s five-part story “The Curse of Capistrano,” published in August 1919
· The original novella was read by 500 million people
· Following the success of the original, McCulley then wrote 64 more Zorro books and short stories
· Zorro translates to “Fox” in Spanish and the character portrays a fox’s wiliness and stealth
· Zorro personifies action, romance, humor and heroism and he is simultaneously wise, brave, charming, charismatic, cunning, and romantic
· Did you know that in Isabel Allende’s Zorro novel Zorro is half Native-American and that the Fox is his animal spirit guide?
· The fictional character Don Diego de la Vega was a Spanish aristocrat who became the swordsman Zorro in order to defend the people of Los Angeles from political oppression. This is why he was a favorite of Mao tze Tung who introduced ZORRO to hundreds of millions of Chinese.
· Zorro famously uses the letter Z to carve his “mark,” using his sword orwhip
· The creators of fictional characters Batman, The Phantom, and Indiana Jones have acknowledged that they were inspired, in part by Zorro
· When Walt Disney introduced the Zorro television series starring Guy Williams in 1957, it was the highest budget series of any Western to date. The TV series became one of the most popular shows of the Golden Age of Hollywood
· Zorro is the first pulp character to be the subject of a major feature film and the fastest to make it from print to screen
· The character has been featured in a total of 69 films, 12 TV series, 6 audio/radio dramas, 1000+ comic books and strips, 75+ stage productions, thousands of publications and countless licensed products
JOHN GERTZ is the president and CEO of Zorro Productions, Inc., which he founded in 1977. John has produced four Zorro motion pictures, including The Mask of Zorro (1998) and its sequel, The Legend of Zorro (2005) with Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. During his tenure, 11 different TV versions of Zorro, as well as about 75 stage productions. In 2005, together with world-renowned author Isabel Allende, he released the best-selling novel about the genesis of Zorro. He teamed up with Quentin Tarantino to create the graphic novel, Django/Zorro, currently being developed into a major motion picture by SONY. Gertz is lead producer of Zorro: The Musical, with a score by the Gipsy Kings, which has played London’s West End and has toured throughout the world, and head to Broadway in 2021 (www.zorro.com/zorro-musical/). John is also the lead producer on the 2018 Glickman Award Winner Love Sick, which will open in Washington DC this September and off Broadway in 2020 (www.lovesickmusical.com). A resident of Berkeley, Gertz is an avid amateur astronomer, a classical pianist, a beekeeper, a mycologist, and an organic vegetable gardener. He has served on about a dozen nonprofit boards, including three terms as chairman of the board of the world-famous SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. He is a leader in the field of SETI, and continues to publish theoretical papers on the subject in peer reviewed astronomical journals.
0 comments: