El Paise
July, 1997
Old El Coyote will ride again. Three years of uncertainties
are left behind. Mario Camus begins in September the filming of a two-part
feature film for cinemas and a two-part television series about the great
Californian hero of the late last century. Actor José Coronado will be the new
El Coyote, in a project that will feature the presence of great
international figures, such as Vittorio Gassman and Terence Stamp. (Eventually
Nigel Davenport ('Charlie-One-Eye" & Ray Lovelock ("Django
Kill", both Spaghetti veterans, appeared
instead. Interesting the original choices Gassman and Stamp also had
a history with the genre. Gassman had done three ("Dream of
Zorro", "What Am I Doing in the Middle of a Revolution?", and to
a lesser extent, 'Catch as Catch Can", where he played an actor appearing
in a western TV commercial), while Stamp was in Fellini's "Toby
Dammit", which was about an actor hired to star in the first-Catholic western.
These scenes were shot and rejected by Fellini). Actresses Ana Duato, Ana Alvarez and Mar
Flores will round out cast of the new adventures of the mask
and Charro hat, created in the forties by José Mallorquí.
Three regular spaghetti actors Alberto Mendoza, Manuel
Alexandre & Manuel Zarzo also would appear.
It is the California
of the late nineteenth century already held by the Americans. There are old
Spanish hidalgos,
with Mexican former owners of the territory and Americanos, as well as
great emigration. It is in this context that the righteous figure of El Coyote,
son of a wealthy farmer, educated in Havana, Cuba and a little foppish, who
decides to defend the interests of Californians in a very individual way
arises. This Peacock wearing the mask and Charro hat, El Coyote becomes a
champion of a humble people against Americans. The stories of El Coyote were
written by Spanish born José Mallorquí, one of many authors of the
forties dedicated to narrating novels of popular evasion and who achieved
enormous success. These stories, similar to the exploits of The Shadow or
The Hood, achieved enormous success and delighted many a reader. One of them,
Mario Camus, had read and remembered them as an important part
of the popular and naive literature of the time. They were westerns
with Californian connotations, full of lots of action, big rides,
stagecoaches and battles. Set in the outdoors." Camus savors the words.
Complex stories and great approaches to getting into the adventures are
behind us at the moment. He has the strength and eagerness to
succeed. "I know it's going to be a beating and it's going to be
a major physical job on me, but it has a very attractive
appeal"," says Camus, 62 (in 1997. Camus had previously made
"The Anger of the Wind", starring Terence Hill, and released in
English as "The Revenge of Trinity")
The project of "El Coyote" began three years
ago by producer Enrique Cerezo (who went on to make "Outlaw
Justice" and "Dead for a Dollar" the following year). Initially
announced as a 11 television episode script based on the adventure
novels of The Coyote. The scripts were supervised by the son of
Mallorquí. Throughout this process there were many leaps and changes.
Finally, for budgetary reasons, a sharp reduction in the magnitude was
required. While waiting for a start date Camus directed
"Adosados" and "El color de los nubes", and was preparing
"The City of Wonders", from the works of Eduardo Mendoza. Camus
put this last project on hold in January when "like an
arrow", El Coyote came soaring into motion.
Haciendas and
countryside.
On September 1, Mario Camus will begin filming three
films - a feature film for cinemas and two hour-and-a-half episodes for
television (Antena 3). The titles of the three will be "La vuelta del
Coyote" (The Return of the Coyote), "Don César de Echagüe"
(Mr. César de Echagüe) and "El tribunal del Coyote"
(The Trial of the Coyote). They will be filmed together and
the first part will play off in cinemas, with the
later pair on television projected over a four month period. The
project is being produced in collaboration with Juan Gona, and
has a budget of about 700 million pesetas. Mario Cámus has the invaluable
collaboration of art decorator Gil Parrondo, who has a lot of
the familiarity with the Spanish country geography. He has
scouted for natural spaces and California style haciendas to added to
the effect. Parrando and his assistant Javier Artiñano,
will come up with the look of this very special time.
The shooting will take place in four different
sites. The first, located in the north of the province of Burgos,
bordering Cantabria, for the great horseback riding and the action
sequences. These scenes will be filmed throughout the month of September,
and then the unit will move to the east to Extremadura, near Portugal, for
it's natural cortijos of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
that Gil Parrondo will turn into California estates. Almeria will be the third stage
where the more western scenes will be shot among the glorious sites
which have a cinematic past. By the end of November, the team
will move to Madrid
to do the interior shots in a studio.
By Mike Ferguson
No comments:
Post a Comment