Arts & Entertainment

Spielberg to film Moctezuma, Hernan Cortes face-off

According to Hollywood scuttlebutt, director Steven Spielberg is planning to take the confrontation between Aztec emperor Moctezuma and Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes to the big screen.

Several sources in the United States have touched on the possibility  that Javier Bardem will play the intrepid Spanish explorer based on a 50-year-old screenplay that is being rewritten by Steve Zaillian (“Schindler’s List”).

Apparently the original screenplay saw the light of day 1965, as a vehicle for Kirk Douglas, written by Dalton Trumbo (“Roman Holiday”).

Early rumors suggest that the film will be positioned from Cortes’  point of view.   The possibilities for interpretation are endless – and potentially controversial – since historians can disagree on the motivations for Moctezuma’s odd behavior during the Spanish incursion into Mexico.

Even though he is far from a revered figure here, it is unlikely that Mexicans would take kindly to Hollywood portraying Moctezuma as a toothless and indecisive leader, as historical sources have generally painted him.