Banderas to star in AI film ‘Cortés’... aiming for 2027 release

Hollywood star Antonio Banderas will appear as the protagonist Hernán Cortés in the historical epic film ‘Cortés,’ produced by the global AI-native studio ‘Utopai Studios.’

Antonio Banderas

Antonio Banderas is a world-renowned actor who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for the film ‘Pain and Glory’ and won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival. He has appeared in numerous works such as ‘The Mask of Zorro,’ ‘Desperado,’ ‘Evita,’ and ‘Philadelphia,’ and also starred in the animated ‘Puss in Boots’ series.

‘Cortés,’ in which he takes the lead role this time, is a feature film depicting the journey experienced by Hernán Cortés during the conquest of the Aztec Empire by Spain, set in 1519. Cortés, who set out on the Yucatan expedition from Cuba without permission, lands on the coast of present-day Mexico and meets Marina, an indigenous woman with exceptional linguistic abilities. Subsequently, as Cortés transforms from a bold outlaw into a figure who claims to be a messiah by utilizing unstable alliances, faith, and fear as tools of conquest, Marina observes this process.

French film director Paul Mignot will direct, and Nicholas Kazan, who was nominated for Academy and Golden Globe Awards for Best Screenplay for the film ‘Reversal of Fortune,’ wrote the screenplay. Marco Weber is in charge of producing.

‘Cortés’ is a work co-produced and co-invested by Utopai Studios and Ex Machina Studios, realizing a large-scale historical drama by combining next-generation production technology with traditional filmmaking methods. The screenplay for ‘Cortés’ written by Nicholas Kazan has been pursued for film adaptation for over 35 years, but it faced difficulties in proceeding to actual production due to its massive scale and high production costs. Utopai Studios utilized AI-based production technology to supplement the constraints of cost and scale required to realize large-scale scenes, while also allowing creators such as directors and actors to realize their visions more freely.

Cecilia Shen, co-founder and CEO of Utopai Studios, said, “‘Cortés’ is a work that clearly shows the reason why we created Utopai Studios. Based on Nicholas Kazan's outstanding screenplay, director Paul Mignot's clear cinematic vision, and the human side that Antonio Banderas will show, we will create a production environment so that creators can realize the films they first envisioned into actual works.”

Production of ‘Cortés’ is currently underway in Paris, and additional filming is scheduled to take place in Spain. It aims for a 2027 release.

Meanwhile, Utopai Studios is the world's largest AI-native studio headquartered in Mountain View, California, USA, and its corporate value is known to be approximately 1 billion dollars. Major global media outlets such as Forbes have also highlighted the corporate value of Utopai Studios. Covering the entire process from planning to investment, production, and distribution of film and TV content, it is currently developing and producing about 25 film and TV projects. Along with ‘Cortés,’ it plans to introduce three feature films, including ‘Half Moon’ and ‘The Most Serious Fart,’ and two series, including ‘Space Nation’ and ‘Journey to the West,’ to the global market in 2027.

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