Alex Proyas Takes the Director's Chair on Banderas Epic Cortés

Alex Proyas is now directing Cortés, a historical epic with Antonio Banderas in the lead role of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, Deadline reported on 9 November 2026.

The change replaces French filmmaker Paul Mignot, who was first announced as director. Mignot is still attached to the project in another capacity, according to the same report.

Filming had already started in Paris and Spain a few weeks before the announcement. The film is described as AI-enabled, a label for productions that use artificial intelligence tools as part of how they are made.

The story is set in 1519. It opens in Cuba, where Cortés takes command of an expedition bound for the Yucatán peninsula. Nicholas Kazan wrote the screenplay, and Marco Weber produced.

Money and making come from two companies. Utopai Studios and Ex Machina Studios co-finance and co-produce the film. Utopai is based in Paris, which the studio's own website describes as the home of the production.

Selling the film is a separate job. K5 International, working under Ex Machina's sales label, is handling sales at the American Film Market, a trade event in Santa Monica where distributors buy and sell films, often before they are finished. K5 is targeting buyers in Europe, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand.

Rights are split by territory. A territory is a country or region where a distributor can release a film. Utopai controls distribution everywhere else, including North America and Asia.

Utopai's website gives 2027 as the release year.

For a general viewer, the useful point is how many hands sit behind one film. A director, a writer, a producer, two studios, a sales company and several regional distributors all have to agree before a single ticket is sold. Changing the director in the middle of production is one of the bigger moves a project can make, and this one arrived while cameras were already rolling.