There was the potential of having something huge come from the project, however, the Quentin Tarantino Django/Zorro crossover film will not be happening, the movie writer Jerrod Carmichael has confirmed. Tarantino made revelations about the movie as far back as 2014, but it would seem that all of that is at an end now.
The concept for the movie was announced to the public in 2019, and it would take place several years after the events in Tarantino’s 2012 film, Django Unchained. When Django Unchained was released in December 2012, it was a huge success, amassing award nominations on its way to becoming director Tarantino’s highest-grossing film. The idea was pitched to Antonio Banderas who had starred as Zorro in The Mask of Zorro in 1998 and The Legend of Zorro in 2005. Banderas was meant to star alongside Django played by Jaime Foxx in Tarantino’s 2012 movie. Carmichael was brought on board to co-write the movie in 2019 by Tarantino, and it was meant to be the unification of two great movie characters.
The movie was meant to see Django, several years after we were introduced to him now operating in the west. He still plies his trade as a bounty hunter and this line of work had put a warrant on him, however, he still manages to help sustain his wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) as they settle down. His journeys would however bring him into contact with the now aged yet famed Don Diego de la Vega aka Zorro. The pair of men would soon come to admire each other with Django and Diego teaming up to free the local indigenous people from slavery.
In an interview with GQ, Carmichael reveals that the project will not be happening, however, he does not reveal the reasons behind this decision to shelve the plans. One thing he did say though was that the project was “impossible” going on to reveal that the movie had been written, and the budget had amounted to $500 million. He is his quote in full:
“Quentin’s a lunatic who I love, and I’m happy that I got to spend the time. We saw exploitation flicks at the New Beverly, he read me scenes that never made it to his movies, that he had typed out, in his kitchen after making fresh-squeezed lemonade for me. It was really special. It’s actually an incredible, incredible script that came in from that Django/Zorro that I would love for Sony to figure out, but I realize the impossibility of it. But I still think we wrote a $500 million film.”
Carmichael has another project having the plug pulled, and it is a proposed remake of the 1982 feature 48 Hours. He does, however, have his Netflix special Rothaniel currently streaming and doing well.
