Jean Dujardin becomes Zorro for France Télévisions. The Oscar-winning actor for The Artist takes over from Guy Williams, who played the masked avenger in the famous soap opera produced by Disney from 1957 to 1961. “We are delighted to be associated with the development of this beautiful family adventure series”wrote on Twitter Manuel Alduy, cinema director of France Télévisions, a few hours after the information revealed by Satellifacts (formerly Satelifax), information site for audiovisual and cinema professionals.
We are delighted to be associated with the development of this great family adventure series! @Francetele pic.twitter.com/qaiSlWD467
— Manuel Alduy (@manuelalduy) October 14, 2022
The new series is written by Benjamin Charbit, who participated in the script of the series The Savages and those of the movies North ferry and Gagarin. Created by Johnston McCulley in 1919, first published as a serial, the character was portrayed in film by then-star Douglas Fairbanks as early as 1920.
If many series, films and cartoons have adapted Zorro (a word that means fox in Spanish), it is the series produced by Walt Disney that first comes to mind. The latter has rocked several generations thanks to its multicasts on television. Jean Dujardin also succeeds Antonio Banderas and Alain Delon, who interpreted the character in the cinema.
Alter ego of Don Diego de la Vega, from the Spanish gentry, Zorro fights injustice by hiding under a mask, wearing a black suit and cape, in early 19th century Alta California , then a Spanish colony. He is accompanied by his faithful deaf and mute servant Bernardo. He is also Sergeant Garcia’s pet peeve.
Jean Dujardin returns to television more than twenty years after being revealed in A boy a girl (1999-2003). The actor declared in 2010 to the newspaper 20 minutes : “Zorro, I think that’s my last wish as a kid. He is all in black, he has a mask. I could do fencing and horse riding.”
The series would be co-produced by France Télévisions, RAI, Italian television and the German ZDF, while Eric Judor is preparing another series inspired by the character for Canal+.