Boardwalk Empire may be over, but Martin Scorsese’s relationship with HBO is only growing deeper and more serious. In addition to the show he’s developing alongside Mick Jagger about the New York music scene in the ’70s, the director is also working on a prequel series to Shutter Island set in the early 20th century. And now Scorsese is teaming with Benicio Del Toro for Cortes, a series about the conquistador who overthrew the Aztec empire, establishing the director’s commitment to taking viewers to far-flung places in time so he can tell stories about the people who were miserable there.
Cortes will revolve around conquistador Hernán Cortés, who briefly ruled Mexico in the name of the Spanish empire; Malinche, a native girl who served as Cortés’ interpreter and later became his mistress; and Moctezuma II, the Aztec emperor whom Cortés befriended before holding him hostage, sacking his city, and forcibly converting many of his people to Christianity. As of right now, Del Toro is only serving as an executive producer, although Deadline reports that he is “interested” in starring as Cortés. Presumably, his interest in playing the lead role is roughly equivalent to Scorsese’s interest in directing the pilot, which is to say it’s almost guaranteed to happen.
As is the way with these things, Cortes comes along at a time where there are already multiple projects in development about the subject, including a Steven Spielberg movie that would star Javier Bardem and a Showtime series called Conquest to be directed by Ron Howard. Expect a fevered race to see who can get their Cortés story to market first, unless Hollywood gets distracted by stories about the black plague or the Panama Canal or something along the way and forgets all about it.