Sci-Fi Film and Television Developments

Tarzan
7/17/09 – SCI FI Wire reported that Stuart Beattie described his new vision of the Lord of the Apes.  "It's not your traditional Tarzan," Beattie said. "It's your Pirates of the Caribbean kind of Tarzan. It's fun. It's how a Tarzan movie should be. It's just, because Tarzan's been done so many times, you can't just do the standard retelling of Tarzan again, because everyone knows that story. If you're going to do Tarzan, you've got to do it different than it's ever been done.  More mythological and supernatural, mythic Africa, where the trees are two or three times the size of trees.”  Beattie added, "It's that deep, deep, deep, dark, heart-of-Africa jungle that no one's ever been, 1930s, period, all that kind of stuff, and really bring that world up into that kind of mythic status, where Tarzan can fly around on all these trees and do amazing acrobatics. I just had a lot of fun with it."  Warner Brothers is in talks with The Mummy's Stephen Sommers to direct Beattie's Tarzan script.

9/3/08 - Stephen Sommers is in negotiations to direct a big-screen version of Tarzan for Warner Brothers and producer Jerry Weintraub, Variety reported.  Sommers will also co-write the Tarzan script with Stuart Beattie. Sommers directed the recently wrapped G.I. Joe for Paramount, with Beattie penning the final draft of the screenplay.  Warner and Weintraub have been developing Tarzan since 2003, when John August was hired to pen a new take on the Edgar Rice Burroughs-created character. Two years ago, the studio was negotiating with Guillermo del Toro to direct.  Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes was written in 1912. Onscreen, the ape-man character became strongly identified with Johnny Weismuller during the 1930s in MGM's series of features.

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