Looks like “Legend of Tarzan” is the Title of WB’s Pic
Two Warner Brothers Executives, Alexandra Lewis and Neil Marshall, presented WB’s 2016 slate to DCM (Digital Cinema Media) and, at least according to Digital Cinema Media, the title under which the 2016 Tarzan film was presented is “The Legend of Tarzan.” Is that final word on the title? Probably not. But it’s a pretty good indication of the direction WB is going.
Here is the quote from DCM as reported in Screen Daily.
Warner Bros Slate
Alexandra Lewis and Neil Marshall of Warner Bros. were invited to the event to present the company’s 2016 slate.
They mounted a defence of the film industry against criticism for lack of original ideas, stating that ultimately they were commercially-minded and that 17 of the top 20 highest-grossing films of all time globally were built on existing properties.
The films presented included Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice, The Legend Of Tarzan and Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them.
Comment: To me, it feels like this just slipped out — as if the presenters lost track of the fact that WB has not yet announced the official title but they know what it is and just used it. Alternatively, they may have assumed something “not in evidence” as they say at trial, and could be proved wrong.
Is that a good title?
It could be worse. Obviously, for anyone who’s been paying much attention over the years, that’s very simlilar to Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan. Also the Legend of Tarzan TV animated TV series that ran from 2001-2003. It’s not terrible. I’m not sure how it’s any better than just Tarzan though, particularly for global audiences and non-english speakers.
Well, I take that back.
Just ran it through a translator and for all European languages that I can think of , “Legend” seems to be cognate and thus it probably sounds okay in all those languages.
Legenda lui Tarzan
Legenda Tarzana
Legende van Tarzan
Légende de Tarzan
Leyenda sa Tarzan
Legend ng Tarzan
Legenda apie Tarzan?
I guess it’s probably okay. I like it better than Tarzan the Untamed, I think. Or do I?
One thing for sure, it’s not as bad as John Carter.
Progress.
Now if they would just get some promotion going . . . .
4 comments
The more I think about it the more The Legend of Tarzan seems appropriate. After all, the story is set many years after Tarzan went to civilization, and in Africa, he would be stuff of legend. And for the audience, it’s a new venture, a whole generation has passed since the last live-action Tarzan hit theaters. So Tarzan is more or less a legend in the general audience’s mind too. Tarzan the Untamed sounds great too, if a little… negative perhaps? It maybe evokes more of a violent aspect than the more tone-neutral Legend of Tarzan? I would have preferred personally “Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan”! By the way we still don’t know who John Hurt plays, could he be ERB himself? That would be neat.
Maggie’s best point is that when you search “Tarzan” you have a lot of competition. Legend of Tarzan will at least be easy to find. I think it also meets the “do no harm” test. It’s hard to hate it. It sounds vaguely “dignified” too . . . .
I disagree with Maggiesview, that Legend implies that it’s not an origin story. A legend is, in fact, the story that has been around a long time and implies the story everyone already knows. It also reminds me of the Legend of Zorro, which was almost a self-parody of the more genuine Mark of Zorro (I’m talking of the Banderas versions). I think Tarzan the Untamed is the wrong title, too, though, largely because it is unrelated to the book of that name written by Edgar Rice Burroughs about Tarzan in The Great War. Because of its fusion with the Belgian Congo narrative, most known literarily through Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, I think a title tipping that direction would be appropriate. However, I can’t think of anything stellar: Tarzan’s Congo Adventure, Tarzan Redux, Tarzan and Jane in Jungle Atrocities. Everything I come up with is more hokey than the generic Legend of Tarzan, as overused as it might be.
I like it because it ties in with other Tarzan projects giving it a familiar ring with audiences ( we know how much the movie going public likes the ” familiar” ) while at the same time giving it a broad enough scope to cover the fact that it’s not An origin story ( which the Simple “Tarzan” title does not do. Also, there was too much confusion when looking up ” Tarzan” with other such movie projects and they needed something that would distinguish it from the others other than ” Tarzan 2016″. I hope that remains the title.