The Canceled Steven Spielberg Miniseries That Could Have Become A Classic

Of us, it is time for a fast historical past lesson. In case you’ve by no means heard of Hernán Cortés, he was a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition that instantly resulted within the fall of King Montezuma II’s Aztec empire. Spearheading the Spanish colonization of the Americas within the sixteenth century, Cortés took benefit of present political crises to rally allies in his favor and set up his personal stronghold. The remaining is a tragic, predictable story marked with limitless strife, counterattacks, and colonial cruelty inflicted on the indigenous populace, with Cortés rising as an vital but controversial historic determine.

In 2018, somebody at Amazon Studios had the intense concept to greenlight a miniseries revolving around Cortés, with Steven Spielberg attached as executive producer. Spielberg’s involvement with the challenge will be traced again to 2014, because the preliminary plan was for him to direct a movie based mostly on the difficult relationship between Cortés and Montezuma II. You see, screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (greatest recognized for his contributions to “Roman Vacation” and “Spartacus”) had written a 205-page screenplay (!!!) titled “Montezuma” again in 1965, however this challenge by no means took flight as a consequence of varied causes.

Quick-forward to 2014, and Steven Zaillian (who penned the screenplay for “Schindler’s Listing”) wrote a second script (now retitled “Cortés”) based mostly on Trumbo’s draft, main Spielberg to think about getting concerned as director, with Javier Bardem in talks to star because the notorious conquistador. This, clearly, did not come to go, however Zaillian ended up tweaking his screenplay right into a four-hour miniseries in 2018, Bardem formally signed on to star, and Spielberg was concerned as an govt producer. Nonetheless, the COVID-19 pandemic destabilized the business in 2020, main manufacturing for the “Cortés” miniseries to be paused. It by no means resumed.

Historic epics that includes difficult figures are likely to carry out nicely when dealt with with nuance (the brilliance of FX’s “Shogun” comes to mind), which could’ve additionally been the case with “Cortés.” Let’s take a more in-depth have a look at what might’ve been. 

Some historic retellings run the danger of glossing over private shortcomings (which, in some circumstances, are unforgivable cruelties) in an try to make their central characters likable. Take the assorted diversifications of “The Bounty” for example, the place the identical story in regards to the historic mutiny on the HMS Bounty is steadily advised by drastically totally different lenses. In each model, Lieutenant William Bligh emerges as a considerably unsavory determine, however Roger Donaldson’s “The Bounty” invests Bligh with startling complexity with out diminishing the problematic overtones of his actions. 

Though Amazon’s “Cortés” was all the time speculated to be an epic steeped in spectacle, it might have centered the titular conquistador whereas highlighting the atrocities which can be half and parcel of any colonial expedition, together with the disastrous fallout triggered by such an act. Bardem’s assertion in regards to the challenge (as a part of its press release at the time) displays this potential complexity, because the actor acknowledged that the “greatest and worst of human nature” ought to be highlighted in a story with immense dramatic potential:

“It’s a privilege to inform this epic story -– one which is filled with drama and battle inside this big, historic spectacle the place two distant civilizations conflict on the top of their reign. The perfect and worst of human nature got here to life in all its gentle and darkness. As an actor, there isn’t any higher problem than to serve such a singular challenge that I’ve been keen about for years, and I’m thrilled to be working with this dream workforce of Steven Spielberg, Steven Zaillian and Amazon.”

Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallegos (greatest recognized for his or her epic crime movie “Birds of Passage”) had been set to direct this miniseries — a stable alternative contemplating their daring visible type and talent to convey visceral rigidity on the display screen. The scope of the challenge was additionally spectacular, because it was being filmed in Spanish, Nahuatl, and Chontal Mayan on the similar time. Regrettably, Amazon scrapped all plans of resuming manufacturing as a result of pandemic, leaving us to ponder whether or not we might’ve had a historic saga that reveled in its large scope with out sidelining the uncomfortable truths of historical past.