Stephen Sommers, best known for directing the good Mummy movies, is in talks to put his CGI-loving genre talents to work on a new version of Tarzan, according to Variety. It has been awhile, I suppose it was inevitable that this particular idea would get yet another retread. Tarzan seems to swing around every ten years or so.
Sommers is currently finishing up work on the big screen version of G.I. Joe, which is due out next summer. If negotiations work out on Tarzan, he’ll go from Joe to co-writing the Tarzan script with his G.I. Joe writer Stuart Beattie, and then directing whatever they come up with.
“Tarzan” was written in 1912, and it’s been adapted into movies over and over again every since. The character achieved major popularity in the 30s, when he was played by the legendary Johnny Weismuller. The last time anyone paid attention to Tarzan, it was 1999 and he was being bastardized by Disney. It’s funny, as many times as Tarzan has made it to the big and small screen, I’ve never really seen a version that’s truly faithful to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ original book. With Sommers predilection for computerized special effects and high-octane popcorn entertainment, it seems unlikely we’ll get that with this version either.
