Antonio Banderas Plays Cortés for Two AI Studios, Shooting in Paris

Antonio Banderas stars as Hernán Cortés in "Cortés", directed by French filmmaker Paul Mignot from a screenplay by Nicholas Kazan that has existed for more than 35 years, with production already underway in Paris and further shooting scheduled in Spain, Utopai Studios and Ex Machina Studios announce. The two co-produce and co-finance the 1519-set epic, which opens in Cuba as a soldier seizes command of an expedition to the Yucatán, through what the release calls a production approach combining traditional filmmaking with next-generation production technologies. Utopai develops PAI, a proprietary cinematic storytelling engine for long-form productions, and leads sales in the US, Canada, Asia, the Middle East and Africa; Ex Machina, founded in January 2026 by producer Marco Weber, filmmaker Martin Weisz and former Paramount streaming head Tom Ryan to integrate artificial intelligence into episodic and feature cinema, leads sales across most of Europe, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand. Weber produces.