Our swashbuckling masked hero embarks on the most dangerous mission of his life when plans for California to become the 31st state in 1850 are undermined by a nefarious plot by several prominent land barons and businessmen.
The Legend of Zorro is set several years after the conclusion of the previous adventure. Alejandro (Antonio Banderas) and Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones) are married and have a ten-year-old son, Joaquin (Adrian Alonso).
Though Alejandro continues to don the mask of Zorro to protect the poor and oppressed residents of the California territory from the greed of the overlords, he is torn between his duty and his desire for a more normal life.
In his valiant attempt to foil the villains' plans, Zorro runs headlong into a crisis that threatens his life and the safety of his family.
"This new adventure takes us deeper into the story of Zorro, a true hero in the great American tradition, a man who is willing to take on the oppressor, despite the great personal risk he must endure," says director Martin Campbell.
When Banderas read the new script, he found it contained all the elements that had made the first film so satisfying. "There was comedy, which is essential to this type of movie, well developed dialogue, and lots of adventure. Knowing that Martin and many of the people who had worked on the first movie would be returning, I knew it was going to be exciting to do."
Zeta-Jones attests: "None of us wanted to embark on a new adventure if we didn't think it would have the same magic as the first film. When we saw that the script had captured that, well, we knew it was just a slam-dunk!"
Director Campbell found that the production of The Legend of Zorro "was one of those rare occasions when everybody was in agreement about what we were doing, and all of us shared in the excitement. We literally shot the final draft of the script. There were very few alterations. And that's a rare thing indeed in movies."
Rufus Sewell joins the cast as Armand, a representative of Europe who is trying to stop what he sees as the inevitable growth of America as a superpower. Having played the bad guy before, Sewell says the idea of doing the same thing again didn't really interest him as an actor.
But after discussing the role with Campbell, he discovered that Armand was no ordinary bad guy. "As Martin saw it, Armand is a patriot, a soldier," says Sewell. "He's very devoted to his cause. It just happens to be the wrong cause."
Catherine Zeta-Jones says the training she had for sword fights in the original film stood her in good stead. "I think that if I hadn't already been trained so well by Bob Anderson and Mark Ivie on the first movie trained really classically coming back and picking it all up again so quickly would not have been as easy and my fights in this movie wouldn't have turned out so smoothly.
"There was something that came over me when I had a sword in my hand. It was so empowering. It's a fantastic athletic sport and I should actually do it as a hobby because it's very physical."
As in most of his action roles, Banderas insisted on doing many of his own stunts. "I try to do as much as I can because I like to be very honest with the audience and I like them to recognise me in those scenes."
He believes it is the story's basic humanity that makes it shine. "This movie was made with a lot of sweat and, sometimes, even blood, but I think the people will appreciate that. In a way, it takes you back to an era when Hollywood regularly portrayed these kinds of characters and made this kind of movie."
Adds Campbell: "The Legend of Zorro is a true romantic action adventure with great action sequences, wonderful humour, real heart and a very good story."
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