the TARZAN puzzle...

[RobertScorpio]

Greystoke, I think thats what it was called, was a decent Tarzan flick...but hardly a big hit. And the awful Bo Derek attempt was..well...awful.

Do you think a big time, serious remake, of Tarzan would ever go over, considering who enviro-friendly our kids are being raised today...

Rob

 

[bionicbob]

In the hands of the right director and writer, absolutely!

The problem is Tarzan has NEVER been done right. At least not as the Tarzan from the ERB novels.

When you say "Tarzan", most people automatically think Johnney"Me Tarzan, you Jane" Weismuller. And while those are greatly entertaining movies, it is still not the Tarzan of the novels.

Tarzan was not mono-syballic. He was actually highly intelligant and fluent is several languages, including ape. He went on incredible adventures, travelled to lost civilizations, fought everything from lions, Nazis and dinosaurs. In many respects, he was the original Indiana Jones!!!

He was also a multi-generational hero, virtually immortal thanks to a witch doctor's potion. He was dedicated family man, defiantly protective of his mate Jane and son Korak. And while he often travelled the globe and wore the facade of civilization as Lord Greystoke, at his heart, he was proudly a dangerous creature of jungle.

There have been many movies and tv series about Tarzan, and each have touched on a different aspect of his classic character but none have fully embraced his full complexity or potential.

I thought the first half of the movie GREYSTOKE about Tarzan growing up in the jungle was fantastically faithful, but once they brought him to England the movie dovetailed and lost me.

There was a syndicated series in 1996 called Tarzan the Epic Adventures, that tried to capture alot of the fantastical elements of the novels, but it suffered from a low budget. Also, it forgot that at the core of Tarzan is the love story between him and Jane.

The 1998 Tarzan and the Lost City, while a terrible movie in execution, it actually got more right about the character than most movies in the past.

The Disney Tarzan movie was actually pretty faithful to the core elements.

I think if a movie or tv producer actually went back to the original books, they would find an untapped wealth of fantastic adventures that would play perfectly to todays summer popcorn blockbuster movie audiences.

 

[Neutral Zone]

I think that there is plenty of scope for a great Tarzan movie, in the right hands it could be a blockbuster, perhaps Peter Jackson and WEA productions would be good choice.

 

[Christopher]

The most faithful screen adaptation of Tarzan ever was Filmation's 1970s animated series Tarzan: Lord of the Jungle. It was very true to Burroughs' books. Tarzan was an educated, sophisticated man, his sidekick was N'kima the monkey instead of a baby chimp inexplicably named Cheetah, he routinely used the Mangani language from Burroughs' novels, and many episodes featured characters, species, and locations from the novels. Its main departure from the books (aside from Tarzan having an American accent rather than the French accent he'd most likely have) was that the violence was toned way, way down for Saturday morning. Also, its time frame might have been updated, though we rarely saw anyone or anything from outside civilization, so there was little evidence to pin down the era.

Unfortunately, Disney holds the home video rights to Tarzan in animated form, and that's an obstacle to getting the Filmation series released on DVD. Which is a shame, since it was one of my favorite Filmation shows.

 

[bionicbob]

The most faithful screen adaptation of Tarzan ever was Filmation's 1970s animated series Tarzan: Lord of the Jungle. It was very true to Burroughs' books. Tarzan was an educated, sophisticated man, his sidekick was N'kima the monkey instead of a baby chimp inexplicably named Cheetah, he routinely used the Mangani language from Burroughs' novels, and many episodes featured characters, species, and locations from the novels. Its main departure from the books (aside from Tarzan having an American accent rather than the French accent he'd most likely have) was that the violence was toned way, way down for Saturday morning. Also, its time frame might have been updated, though we rarely saw anyone or anything from outside civilization, so there was little evidence to pin down the era.

I whole heartedly agree. That was an excellent Tarzan series!

I don't know why (as it departs greatly from the novels), but I also have fondness for the Ron Ely Tarzan series. Maybe because he was my first on screen Ape Man.

Hopely, the current JOHN CARTER OF MARS movie project will be successful (and hopefully, FAITHFUL to ERB's work) and renew interest in Tarzan for a new generation.

 

[ToddPence]

The problem is Tarzan has NEVER been done right.

I thought the first half of the movie GREYSTOKE about Tarzan growing up in the jungle was fantastically faithful, but once they brought him to England the movie dovetailed and lost me.

The 1998 Tarzan and the Lost City, while a terrible movie in execution, it actually got more right about the character than most movies in the past.

I totally agree on all three counts.

Tarzan has never been done right in the cinema. Even Greystoke and the Disney film each got it only about half right.

 

[bionicbob]

Something I always wondered about (and maybe the professional writers in this forum know the answer) why the ERB Estate has never truly authorized an ongoing continuation of the adventures of Tarzan in novel form?

They have authorized countless comics, movies and tv shows, but seldom have they allowed new writers to create and/or expand on the Tarzan mythos in book form.

To me, it seems like a no-brainer cash-cow idea. So long as they maintained creative control, they could ensure the integrety of the character is not dimished while exposing the character to new audiences.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Something I always wondered about (and maybe the professional writers in this forum know the answer) why the ERB Estate has never truly authorized an ongoing continuation of the adventures of Tarzan in novel form?

They have authorized countless comics, movies and tv shows, but seldom have they allowed new writers to create and/or expand on the Tarzan mythos in book form.

To me, it seems like a no-brainer cash-cow idea. So long as they maintained creative control, they could ensure the integrety of the character is not dimished while exposing the character to new audiences.

There was Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (based on the movie), Tarzan the Lost Adventure where Joe Lansdale completed an unfinished ERB manuscript, Tarzan the Epic Adventures by R. A. Salvatore (based on the TV show) and The Dark Heart of Time by Phillip Jose Farmer

 

[bionicbob]

There was Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (based on the movie), Tarzan the Lost Adventure where Joe Lansdale completed an unfinished ERB manuscript, Tarzan the Epic Adventures by R. A. Salvatore (based on the TV show) and The Dark Heart of Time by Phillip Jose Farmer

True. But most of those were media tie-ins.
Plus that is only FOUR NEW BOOKS in the last 60 years. ERB wrote I think 24 or 25 Tarzan novels between 1912 and 1940. Compared to comics, movies and tv shows, four new Tarzan novels is pretty insignificant.

I just think it is strange that ERB Estate has this fantastic iconic property that they don't promote or develop more.

 

[Nerys Myk]

True. I'm a big fan and I'd love to see more Tarzan in any form. When I was a kid there were comic books, a comic strip, a TV show and movies.

 

[bionicbob]

Yeah, Tarzan is perhaps one of the most iconic, world reknown literary characters of the 20th Century pulp fiction.

Compare him to CONAN. ERB wrote more stories about Tarzan than REH wrote about Conan. Tarzan has had far more cross media development than Conan in term of movies, tv and comics. But in terms of quality, new novel adventures, Conan far surpasses Tarzan.

I definitely think it a great untapped market. I would love to see some reknown authors take a crack at the Lord of the Jungle and explore Tarzan and his family as they "age" through the 20th Century. Maybe even cross him over with ERB other great heroes, a la League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Boy, that would be cool movie!!!

 

[Christopher]

I definitely think it a great untapped market. I would love to see some reknown authors take a crack at the Lord of the Jungle and explore Tarzan and his family as they "age" through the 20th Century. Maybe even cross him over with ERB other great heroes, a la League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Boy, that would be cool movie!!!

Isn't that what Philip Jose Farmer did with the Wold Newton Universe?

 

[Jetfire]

I like The WB's Tarzan TV series...but it didn't last long.

 

[Christopher]

I like The WB's Tarzan TV series...but it didn't last long.

That was barely even Tarzan. That name was only spoken once in the entire 9-episode run. It was a show about NYPD detective Jane Porter encountering a young man named John Clayton who'd recently been rescued from the wilds he'd been living in since childhood and was struggling to adjust to the urban jungle. So authentic it wasn't.

However, for what it was, it wasn't a bad show. Which is surprising, considering how much retooling it went through. There were so many changes of direction imposed by the network and the revolving-door producers that essentially every one of the first four or five episodes set up one story direction that the subsequent episode scuttled. (For instance, one episode had Jane keeping John/Tarzan secret from her fiance, the next had the fiance learning the secret and beginning a rivalry with John, and the next killed off the fiance.) And yet despite that, the overall story arc felt surprisingly coherent. And the final episode brought the arc to a satisfactory resolution, so that the whole thing worked fairly well as a complete, 9-episode limited series rather than something that got cut off when it had barely gotten started. Not to mention that Sarah Wayne Callies was luminous as Jane and Lucy Lawless was a semiregular.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes is the entire title of the Christopher Lambert film. Ian Holm, previously known as Ash in Alien later to become Bilbo Baggins also had a good role in this film as the Belgian explorer that essentially makes first contact with the feral ape man. Good movie!

The Tarzan the Ape Man was directed by the husband of Bo Derek, John. Derek was also an accomplished professional photographer. Because of this, while the movie sucked, it was pretty to look at. Of course, Bo didn't hinder that aspect either. ;-)

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Warner Bros has been developing a new big budget take on Tarzan for a few years now. In 2006 they signed Guillermo del Toro to direct the film. del Toro said he wanted to make the film as dark as he could while still being appropriate for children. However, his other film commitments led to him leaving the project and unfortunately the director now attached is a big step down: Stephen Sommers.

Sommers is co-writing the film with Stuart Beattie. The plan is to have it set in the early 1930s with a lot of supernatural elements (partly going for a Pirates of the Caribbean vibe), and Sommer wants to include a lot of parkour.

 

[Christopher]

^Okay, the parkour thing is the one part of that news that's interesting, so long as Sommers uses real live stuntmen instead of the dreadful fake CGI puppets he usually uses. But the idea of a Stephen Sommers Tarzan sounds dreadful. It'll be even more cartoony and unrealistic than the Disney film.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

There was Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (based on the movie), Tarzan the Lost Adventure where Joe Lansdale completed an unfinished ERB manuscript, Tarzan the Epic Adventures by R. A. Salvatore (based on the TV show) and The Dark Heart of Time by Phillip Jose Farmer

There's also Farmer's The Adventure of the Peerless Peer, his Tarzan/Sherlock Holmes crossover novella. And Tarzan Alive, his biography of Tarzan.

The former was unauthorized; Farmer was under the apparent belief that Tarzan was public domain.

The early Tarzan novels are public domain now, and anyone can reprint them.

 

[Greg Cox]

Yeah, Tarzan is perhaps one of the most iconic, world reknown literary characters of the 20th Century pulp fiction.

Compare him to CONAN. ERB wrote more stories about Tarzan than REH wrote about Conan. Tarzan has had far more cross media development than Conan in term of movies, tv and comics. But in terms of quality, new novel adventures, Conan far surpasses Tarzan.

I definitely think it a great untapped market. I would love to see some reknown authors take a crack at the Lord of the Jungle and explore Tarzan and his family as they "age" through the 20th Century. Maybe even cross him over with ERB other great heroes, a la League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Boy, that would be cool movie!!!

The CONAN comparison is a valid one. TARZAN has definitely not been exploited to the same degree. Another good comparison would be the James Bond license, which has seen successive generations of writers pick up where Ian Fleming left off.

Who knows? If the new PRINCESS OF MARS movie is a hit, more TARZAN would be the logical next step.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Yeah, Tarzan is perhaps one of the most iconic, world reknown literary characters of the 20th Century pulp fiction.

Compare him to CONAN. ERB wrote more stories about Tarzan than REH wrote about Conan. Tarzan has had far more cross media development than Conan in term of movies, tv and comics. But in terms of quality, new novel adventures, Conan far surpasses Tarzan.

I definitely think it a great untapped market. I would love to see some reknown authors take a crack at the Lord of the Jungle and explore Tarzan and his family as they "age" through the 20th Century. Maybe even cross him over with ERB other great heroes, a la League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Boy, that would be cool movie!!!

The CONAN comparison is a valid one. TARZAN has definitely not been exploited to the same degree. Another good comparison would be the James Bond license, which has seen successive generations of writers pick up where Ian Fleming left off.

Who knows? If the new PRINCESS OF MARS movie is a hit, more TARZAN would be the logical next step.

Prince of Mars? Don't tell me there is a book about TARZAN going to mars; that is never going to go over as a movie idea IMO. BOND took years to recover from MOONRAKER..oye!!!

Rob