Entertainment Weekly has the scoop on Stephen Sommers’ proposed new take on the Tarzan tale and it is quite odd to say the least. The details read:
The action-adventure icon will trash his loincloth and throw on a pair of khakis for the next big screen take on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic character, who first appeared way back in the Stone Age — er, 1912. Director Stephen Sommers (The Mummy) and screenwriter Stuart Beattie (Australia) are ditching the boy-raised-by-apes origin story for a 1930’s-set romp with a hefty helping of romance: Think Pirates of the Caribbean with buffed-and-tanned actors flying through the jungle and sprinting up trees, parkour-style.
EW is far too kind to the idea saying it seems like a safe bet considering Beattie’s involvement in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, but I find it hard to believe the idea of the Lord of the Apes strolling around the trees in a pair of khakis seems – wrong?
Strangely enough this is the same film Warner Bros. was working with Guillermo del Toro at one time as well as had a draft written by John August (Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). I can’t imagine either of them imagined Tarzan in this way, but who knows? I just wonder if Sommers has talked to the Gap or Eddie Bauer yet for a bit of cross-promotion marketing. As a matter of fact, this could serve as the first trailer… of course we would need some ridiculous CGI monsters, but this should work for now:
