<P> Producer Steven Spielberg had initially developed the film for TriStar Pictures with directors Mikael Salomon and Robert Rodriguez, before Campbell signed on in 1996 . Salomon cast Sean Connery as Don Diego de la Vega, while Rodriguez brought Banderas in the lead role . Connery dropped out and was replaced with Hopkins, and The Mask of Zorro began filming in January 1997 at Estudios Churubusco in Mexico City, Mexico . The film was released in the United States on July 17, 1998 to critical and commercial success . The Legend of Zorro, a sequel also starring Banderas and Zeta - Jones and directed by Campbell, was released in 2005, but did not fare as well as its predecessor . </P> <P> In 1821, Don Diego de la Vega (Anthony Hopkins), a Californio nobleman, fights against the Spanish in the Mexican War of Independence as Zorro, a mysterious masked swordsman who defends the Mexican peasants and commoners of Las Californias . Don Rafael Montero (Stuart Wilson), the corrupt governor of the region, learns of De La Vega's alter ego and attempts to arrest him . De la Vega's wife Esperanza (Julieta Rosen), who was also a former lover of Montero's, is killed during the scuffle . Montero imprisons de La Vega and takes his infant daughter, Elena, as his own before returning to Spain . </P> <P> Twenty years later, Montero returns to California as a civilian, alongside Elena (Catherine Zeta - Jones) who has grown into a beautiful woman and resembles her late mother . Montero's reappearance motivates de La Vega to escape from prison . He encounters a thief, Alejandro Murietta (Antonio Banderas) who, as a child, saved Zorro's life during his last fight . De la Vega decides that fate has brought them together, and agrees to make Alejandro his protégé, grooming him to be the new Zorro . Alejandro agrees to undergo de La Vega's training regimen in Zorro's lair underneath the ruins of his family estate in order to be able to take revenge on Captain Harrison Love (Matt Letscher) Montero's right - hand man, who was responsible for killing Alejandro's brother, Joaquin (Victor Rivers). </P> <P> While still being trained, Alejandro steals a black stallion resembling Tornado from the local garrison . De La Vega scolds Alejandro, claiming that Zorro was a servant of the people, not a thief and adventurer . He challenges Alejandro to gain Montero's trust instead . Alejandro poses as a visiting nobleman named Don Alejandro del Castillo y García, with de la Vega as his servant, and attends a party at Montero's hacienda . At the party, he gains Elena's admiration and enough of Montero's trust to be invited to a secret meeting where several other noblemen are present . Montero hints at a plan to retake California for the Dons and proclaim it as an independent republic by buying it from General Santa Anna, who needs money to fund his upcoming war with the United States . </P>

Who plays elena in the mask of zorro