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‘Tarzan’ Dying On The Vine At Warner Bros?

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday April 10, 2013 @ 1:02pm PDTTags: Alexander Skarsgard, David Yates, Jessica Chastain, Tarzan, Warner Bros
Mike Fleming

Alexander SkarsgardEXCLUSIVE: Things are not looking very good right now for Tarzan, the re-imagining of the Edgar Rice Burroughs tale that has Harry Potter helmer David Yates preparing to make it this year, with True Blood‘s Alexander Skarsgard playing the title character and Zero Dark Thirty‘s Jessica Chastain circling the female lead. I’m hearing they’ve shut down plans to make the film this year, and are shuttering the production office. Sounds like it had to do with a high budget they just couldn’t reduce to the level that made the studio comfortable. Casting and timing could also have been an issue, as word is the studio had been courting Jamie Foxx to play the film’s third lead but hadn’t made a deal. This is the film that Warner Bros has tried to get going for years, even hiring scribes Adam Cozad and Craig Brewer to separately script their own visions for the franchise.

Nobody was commenting officially, but insiders at the studio tell me they are trying again for 2014 and that Yates is still in the fold. The studio hadn’t greenlit the film and did not have pay or play deals, so it wasn’t that hard to apply the brakes. Warner Bros is always voracious for franchises that can play on a global stage, but the studio also has been pretty bold about unplugging films that cost too much or don’t get the starpower. Recent examples include the David Dobkin-directed Arthur & Lancelot, scrapped because the film was going to cost at least $130 million, and Warner Bros didn’t want to spend a dime more than $110 million on a film to star newcomers Joel Kinnaman and Kit Harington. The studio also slowed the pace of Akira by shuttering the Vancouver production office, and letting lapse the test options deals it had with Dane DeHaan and Michael Pitt. Both actors had been competing for the lead role of Tetsuo, to star alongside Garrett Hedlund, Kristin Stewart, and potentially Ken Watanabe and Helena Bonham Carter. Neither of those films were greenlit, but they were close and so was Tarzan. Warner Bros is hardly alone among studios doing this. Legendary scrapped Paradise Lost, and Disney unplugged The Lone Ranger–until the $250 million budget was trimmed to around $215 million. That film regained its footing and is Disney’s big offering for July 3. We’ll see if Tarzan is able to come back together like The Lone Ranger or whether it’s the latest casualty in the struggle between creative ambition and fiscal discipline.

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Director Talk: David Yates For ‘Tarzan,’ Christopher McQuarrie For ‘Without Remorse’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday August 1, 2012 @ 11:52am PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Christopher McQuarrie, David Yates, Paramount, Tarzan, Warner Bros, Without Remorse
Mike Fleming

No deals have been made, but I am hearing that things are getting serious between Warner Bros and Harry Potter director David Yates on Tarzan, the long … Read More »

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‘Twilight Saga’s Kellan Lutz To Play Tarzan In Constantin Movie

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday May 3, 2012 @ 6:18pm PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Tarzan
Mike Fleming

BREAKING: Twilight Saga‘s Kellan Lutz will star as Tarzan in the Constantin film that will be directed by Reinhard Klooss (Animals United). The film is fully animated CGI with motion capture. Written by by Jessica Postigo, Yoni Brenner (Ice Age: … Read More »

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Craig Brewer Makes ‘Tarzan’ Deal, Writing Ape Man Saga As Trilogy

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday June 2, 2011 @ 9:48am PDTTags: Adam Cozad, Craig Brewer, Jerry Weintraub, Julianne Hough, Kenny Wormald, Tarzan
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros has locked Craig Brewer into a deal to write and direct a new installment of Tarzan. Brewer has come up with a take that tells the Tarzan story over three films. He hopes the first one will … Read More »

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Warner Bros Has One, Maybe Two Tarzan Pic Swinging From The Vine

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday May 6, 2011 @ 10:41am PDTTags: Adam Cozad, Craig Brewer, Tarzan, Warner Bros
Mike Fleming

Warner Bros has been trying to get its Tarzan movie up and running for several years. Now, I’m hearing that the studios is trying again, and word on the vine is they might well commission two separate scripts that’ll be … Read More »

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