HOLLYWOOD -- Antonio Banderas hopes to trade in his black mask for a white one.

In The Mask of Zorro, which opens July 17, the sexy Spaniard plays the famous masked avenger.

If everything goes as planned, Banderas will be playing the disfigured maestro hiding behind a mask in the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera.

This month at least, John Travolta is out and Banderas is in.

"When we were shooting Evita, I told Andrew I would like to play the Phantom. I learned all the songs and sang them for him," says Banderas.

"He didn't really give me any encouragement until they were putting together his 50th birthday celebrations at the Albert Hall in London.

"He asked me to be part of the show. I'd never sung in public before, and this was going to be in front of 5,000 people. I was terrified."

Lloyd Webber contacted Banderas a few weeks later with a proposal for the film.

"We're supposed to begin recording the songs in February, but I still won't believe I'm the Phantom until somebody says 'action.' "

Right now there is no director attached to the project. John Woo pulled out when negotiations stalled with Travolta.

Banderas is currently making his directorial debut directing his wife Melanie Griffith in the black comedy Crazy in Alabama.


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