Steven Spielberg prepares to direct film about Hernando Cortez based on 50-year old script by legendary Dalton Trumbo.
A question that has plagued many filmgoers since Steven Spielberg’s sterling Lincoln has been...what’s next? In back-to-back succession, the blockbuster auteur has dropped out of one promising project and then another with Robopocalypseand American Sniper, respectively. The first, a still on-the-table sci-fi epic about the rise of machines scripted by Drew Goddard (Cabin in the Woods) and originally slated to star Chris Hemsworth and Anne Hathaway, was passed over for a film about Navy SEAL Chris Kyle with Bradley Cooper set to star. Spielberg then removed himself and his studio brand of DreamWorks from the project, leaving some to wonder how long would he stay unemployed?
Apparently not for too much more time according to Deadline, which reports the delicious prospect of Spielberg preparing to direct a nearly 50-year old fabled Hollywood script…Montezuma. The story of Spanish Conquistador Hernando Cortez, the film would be a Hollywood retelling of what happened when Spain came to Mexico and broke the Aztec Empire. More tantalizing still is that Javier Bardem is very interested to tackle the role of the legendary Spaniard, which may explain his reluctance to play Blackbeard in Warner Brothers’ Peter Pan reboot.
The screenplay Montezuma was written by Dalton Trumbo, one of the “Hollywood Ten” who was blacklisted for not giving up names to the House Un-American Activities Committee. Indeed, Trumbo spent 11 months in jail for his defiance at HUAC and the U.S. Congress. Blacklisted for over a decade, Trumbo was forced to move to Mexico where he wrote scripts under pseudonyms, including the noir classic Gun Crazy (1950), romantic icon Roman Holiday (1953), and an Oscar-winning screenplay for The Brave One (1956), which he was credited in as “Robert Rich.” Eventually he earned the support of Kirk Douglas who handpicked him to write the screenplay for his next star vehicle, the Stanley Kubrick directed Spartacus(1960). In 1965, Trumbo wrote a 205-page draft of Montezumafor Kirk Douglas to star as Cortez, but the project fell apart.
Deadline reports that the title will likely be changed to Cortez, as the conqueror will be the subject of the film, especially when played by the always-fascinating Bardem. Steve Zaillian is onboard as well to rewrite the script for modern sensibilities and seems like a strong choice given his penchant for scripting historical epics in the past like Gangs of New York and Spielberg’s own Schindler’s List. He most recently won an Oscar for co-writing Moneyball and has scribed the text for Ridley Scott’s Moses picture, Exodus, which stars Christian Bale later this year.
Cortez will chronicle when the Spanish gold-hunter entered the Mexico region in 1519, becoming a guest (and prisoner) of Aztec ruler Montezuma, before eventually turning on his host leading to an apocalyptic war.
More as it develops.