WB attaches David Yates as director for their Tarzan project – are they finally going to get it done?

Michael Sellers Tarzan, The Tarzan Files

Tarzan has been languishing in the development dungeons of Warner Brothers Studios for years, but a few months back they reached a point where they had to relinquish the option or exercise it, and they chose to exercise (which means $$) — so now it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they have attached a director and seem to be moving forward with the project. David Yates, the director of the last four Harry Potter Movies, has committed to direct WB’s Tarzan and is allegedly already talking to up and comers like Henry Cavil, Charlie Hunnam, and True Blood’s Alexander Skarsgard. The news first broke on Vulture.com and has been picked up elsewhere.

So . . . is a big budget tentpole reboot of Tarzan really in the works? Signs are beginning to point that way. I’m encouraged by this news.

5 comments

  • Alexander Skarsgard (incidentally, Taylor Kitsch’s brother in Battleship!) would be considered for the main title role, and Samuel Jackson as a sidekick??

    http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118062211

    “Should Yates convince Warners brass to sign off on the casting, the 6’4″ Swedish thesp would play John Clayton III, aka Tarzan. Years after he’s reassimilated into society, he’s asked by Queen Victoria to investigate the goings-on in the Congo. Tarzan teams with an ex-mercenary named George Washington Williams to save the Congo from a warlord who controls a massive diamond mine. Samuel L. Jackson is being eyed to play Williams.”

  • Oh, god, let’s hope they get it right!!! Please no dumbing down or “updating/modernizing” for younger audiences, and please no sanitizing the violence! Doing it as a period piece would be best – Guillermo del Toro wanted to direct a new Tarzan picture at one point (it was on his list of future projects) and had made it clear he would be very true to the source material, including not sanitizing the violence – but it is no longer on his list, unfortunately. Casting the right guy for the lead is absolutely, positively crucial – having an athletic physique isn’t enough – the actor must be an excellent actor and if one is “truly true” to the source material, he has to be a big guy with gray/blue eyes. Sorry – I am very passionate about the character (as I am John Carter) and there’s just no point in doing it if it can’t be done right.

  • There’s always the (tiny) hope that if it’s sufficiently close to ERB’s novel, and successful, it could attract Hollywood’s attention to other ERB properties. We can dream! Anyway, it could be fairly good news in itself.

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