The king of the jungle is getting closer to making his return to the big screen. The character was created by Edgar Rice Burroughs in his classic novels from the early 1900's. Tarzan has been depicted in many mediums such as, comic books, radio, television, and films. Actually over eighty movies have been produced about the legendary character.
Craig Brewer is the director of the
Footloose remake that is about to open up in theaters and he has just turned in his script for
Tarzan that he plans to also direct. He says he was inspired by one Tarzan film in particular, 1984's
Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. That version of the Tarzan tale was more origin oriented than previous versions, and it starred Christopher Lambert (Highlander).
Hey Craig, what can you tell me about the current status of your proposed Tarzan script?
Craig Brewer: I’ll tell you what … I am so excited about it because I just turned my script into the studio last Friday. I’m waiting to see what they think. My producing team loves it, and some other people at the studio have read it so I’m waiting to see. I can tell you it’s the best thing that I’ve ever written. I hope they’re going to let me do it because I really think we are going to make an incredible Tarzan. So I’m hoping to do it.
Is this something that you are planning to direct yourself?
Brewer: Oh yeah, oh yeah, definitely!
Without giving too much away, what exactly is your take on the character and the story in the new script?
Brewer: I don’t want to get too in to it but it definitely doesn’t take place in a modern context. I was a big fan of the Edgar Rice Burroughs’ books and it takes place in the African Congo around the turn of the century so it’s the classic legend.
Finally, what have you learned from adapting Footloose that helped you in writing the script for Tarzan?
Brewer: One thing that Footloose taught me was balancing the people that want to see something new vs. the people who loved the original. With Tarzan that is even harder because you got the kids who were raised on the Disney movie, then you got the people that were raised on Weissmuller’s black and white movies, then you got the people who love the books and the comics, so I have a lot of people that I have to make happy. But I have to say that if Warner wants to do this script that I just gave them, I think it will be a pretty incredible movie.
Now, first things first, Brewer says he doesn’t know where this ‘trilogy’ thing came from.
Well, you know, no one never talked to me about that. I was surprised to read that in the papers myself. [chuckle] I don’t know where that information came from. I’ll tell you, I never really thought of it as a trilogy, I thought of it more as something to be serialized, you know. I thought it was something that you could have more than one. But after writing the script that I just feel like I can see it, I can see multiple movies. - Courtesy of moviehole.net
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