Overview
- Antonio Banderas began filming in Paris on Tuesday and will play Hernán Cortés in the film titled Cortés.
- The film is directed by Paul Mignot, written by Nicholas Kazan, and co-produced by Utopai Studios and Ex Machina Studios with a planned 2027 release.
- Producers say they will use AI tools across production to reduce scale and cost barriers and to create sequences that would otherwise be unaffordable.
- The project centers on Cortés’s 1519 expedition and his relationship with Marina (La Malinche), a subject that adds cultural sensitivity to the film’s use of AI and likenesses.
- Industry observers say the production highlights a new model in which AI-focused studios enable big projects but may prompt tighter rules on actor consent, model training data and who controls final creative choices.