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Alexander Skarsgard And Samuel L. Jackson Are Swinging Towards TARZAN!!
The Kidd here...
I've been hearing of a new version of TARZAN being in development over at Warner Bros. for at least the past 15 years, and yet for all the work that was poured into it, the revival of the famed brand never seemed to get beyond the conceptual stage... that is, until now.
With HARRY POTTER veteran director David Yates all set to get behind the camera for a production start next summer, a push is being made to secure talent for the titular character, and if Yates gets his way, that responsibility would fall to TRUE BLOOD's Alexander Skarsgard.
Per Variety, Skarsgard is Yates' top choice for the role, emerging from a group that also featured Henry Cavill, Tom Hardy (who now has something else lined up) and PACIFIC RIM's Charlie Hunnam.
If this all goes through, Skarsgard would becpme Thomas Clayton III, who, years after re-assimilating back into society would head into the Congo on behalf of Queen Victoria to look into the dealings of a dangerous warlord who controls a large diamond mine.
As for Samuel L. Jackson's involvement, Yates is hoping to land the actor to play George Washington Williams, an ex-mercenary sidekick of sorts who heads into the Congo with Tarzan on this adventure.
Alright... now who plays Jane?
-Billy Donnelly
"The Infamous Billy The Kidd"
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Readers Talkback
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Maybe the actress who plays Billie Kent on Boardwalk Empire. Since we're headhunting actors from HBO shows.
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Nov. 14, 2012, 4:09 p.m. CST
There hasn't been a live-action Tarzan film since 1998. We were probably due.
by Bill C.
This doesn't mean that this will be a GOOD film, especially since we don't know who's writing it (the Variety article mentions "multiple scribes" as having worked on it, which is a huge red flag IMO), just...inevitable, sooner or later.
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Come on you know you were thinking that!
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You know the drill.
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A lot better than this monkey movie.
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Nov. 14, 2012, 4:16 p.m. CST
As long as this keeps Yates away from anything important, fine by me
by daggor
Because Yates delivers serviceable movies on time and on budget - and that's not what I want to watch.
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So basically all the action will either be rushed or happen off camera and the ending will be anti-climatic? He ruined Deathly Hallows part 2...
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Tarzan's name is John Clayton. If it isn't about the original, why call it Tarzan?
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Good. Peter Jackson for JL.
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Nov. 14, 2012, 4:24 p.m. CST
I remember one episode of that wpix 11 or was it wwor 9? tarzan tv show on sundays
by DarthBlart
jane was digging through a bag or something and they had her cleavage swinging for like 9 minutes.
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C´mon, you were what, 4 years old back then?
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Nov. 14, 2012, 4:32 p.m. CST
that headline= Jungle Fever!!!! HAAHAHAHAHAHA sorry couldn't help it...
by Squinty CGI Flynn
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Nov. 14, 2012, 4:34 p.m. CST
I am here to proclaim my love for the Disney TARZAN film.
by Robert Evans
great animation excellent score good memorable songs (sans one) excellent voice casting (sans Rosie)
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surprised I was first to say it...really now..
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Sad. But if his ass wasn't so greedy he probably get better roles!
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Nov. 14, 2012, 4:41 p.m. CST
Will this still go forward after Lone Ranger tanks???
by kindofabigdeal
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Nov. 14, 2012, 4:41 p.m. CST
tarzan's greatest adventure featuring ayoung Connery was the most enjoyable Tarzan film.
by alan_poon
Also liked Ron Ely.
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Michael Phelps is too goofy looking.
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Still think that Alexander Skarsgard would have been ideal for Thor if they had made it a darker take on Thor. I always thought it would have been cool if they had made a Thor film that began in 11th century (or perhaps as far back as the beginning of the CE's also known as the Roman Era) where Thor barely defeated a seemingly unbeatable foe only to have that said foe reappear stronger than ever a thousand years later in the present day forcing Thor to once again return to earth.
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I'd rather see the Will Ferrel movie about Tarzan's rehabilitation into society. John C Reily is the douche that Jane used to go out with and he's trying to win her back. Jonah Hill as the guy responsible for Tarzan.
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Who besides Alex works for HBO? Charlie Hunnam is Jax on FX's show Sons of Anarchy and he's in next summer's big movie : Pacific Rim as the article mentioned. S L Jackson I don't recall being on an HBO show. Henry Cavill was on the Tudors, which is Showtime and I'm not sure about Tom Hardy, but I don't recall him on any cable shows. I could be wrong.
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Nov. 14, 2012, 5:52 p.m. CST
All Tarzan films will suck, no one has the balls to do it right.
by the Green Gargantua
fact :(
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is a great take on the subject, and Tarzan, The Ape Man (Bo Derek) is a different beast altogether ... Weissmuller, Lincoln, Crabbe, Ely Lambert, O'Keefe ...
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Bwahahahaha!
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Blah, not a fan of A.S. Needs to be someone with more bulk on them anyway.
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Nov. 14, 2012, 6:22 p.m. CST
Who plays Jane? Here's a better question..WHO CARES!?
by ShakaLaka Lambo
seriously.
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Howie Mandel cameo's.
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Nov. 14, 2012, 6:39 p.m. CST
Skarsgard's glistening chest in the jungle. This should play well in the gay community
by Sean
I can imagine in the future, this would have the same midnight screening cult cinema appeal that Rock Horror has. There...you've got your audience. I don't think Tarzan appeals much to me, but it'll do well in that sector. If anything.
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Nov. 14, 2012, 6:54 p.m. CST
Gonna be a huge FLOP. Hopefully halting Yates career making bland borefests.
by DrPain
Who wants to see Tarzan?? The same people who wanted King Kong?
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Nov. 14, 2012, 6:59 p.m. CST
I'm getting bad flashbacks of Shia LeBeef swinging through the trees with those horrible CG monkeys!
by DrPain
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Accent: check. Good looks: check. Can play a strong, spirited character: check. Any others?
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Until I see chimp casting, I do not care for this movie.
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Nov. 14, 2012, 7:51 p.m. CST
I wonder if the movie will also show stupid women from the West and East with their diamond rings contributing to slave labour and human rights abuses in African mines
by Hardboiled Wonderland
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I want a new blood diamond right fucking now, Tarzan!!! Cue temper tantrum scene at airport.
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Nov. 14, 2012, 7:53 p.m. CST
Cast Kony2012 as the evil diamond mine warlord!!
by Hardboiled Wonderland
Cast the Invisible Children CEO as a sidekick.
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Nov. 14, 2012, 8:23 p.m. CST
YAYYYYY!!!! ANOTHE RMOVIE WHERE A WHITE GUY GOES TO NTHE JUNGLE TO STRAIGHTEN OUT ALL THOSE IGNANT ASS COLORED PEOPLE YAYYYYYY!!!!!.......DIDNT THESE IDIOTS LEARN ANTTHING FROM JOHN CARTER? I GUESS NOT YAAYYYYYYY!!!
by The_All_Dead
yeah...stop it please.
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Nov. 14, 2012, 8:36 p.m. CST
Actually, Taylor Kitsch would probably make a very good Tarzan. He's got the right look, and wouldn't need to say much - perfect match for him.
by Deagol21
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"Thomas" is the Kidd's fuckup. Must be obsessed with John Thomas ... The Variety article has the name as John.
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Nov. 14, 2012, 8:47 p.m. CST
Green Hornet=fail, Lone Ranger=fail, Tarzan=fail, John Carter=fail......
by The_All_Dead
I will give a cookie to anyone who can guess what these properties have in common. I will give two cookies to whoever has the funniest or most insulting answer and yes, insults directed at me are also considered.
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No one has the balls to show Tarzan as he is in the books, a savage animal/man of the jungle.<p> <p> And I don't understand it, some of those books are perfect for a movie. In Tarzan the Untamed he joins forces with British during WWI in Africa and kills tons of Germans. In one scene Tarzan and a lion jump into a trench full of Germans and slaughter them outright. How is that scene alone not worth a movie?<p> <p> You could even update it a little and make it WWII and the Germans into Nazis.
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I mean DAMN....Burroughs described him as massively muscled like a really large gymnast. Tarzan is suposed to be intimidating .... not emo and built like my sister.
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With his weight somewhere between Thor and Avengers... Dye his hair black….Let him play it more brutal/animalistic…..BAM. THAT is Burroughs Tarzan…and for once he’d look like a Tarzan you wouldn’t want to screw with and who might actually be able to go hand to hand with some Jungle animal larger than a jackal. As opposed to Alexander Skarsgaard, Christopher Lambert, Taylor Kitsch, or any of the backstreet boys who might be available this year... Enough already of the Tarzan’s who look more like they might not win a fight in an Emo bar let alone a Jungle
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Nov. 14, 2012, 10:21 p.m. CST
Christopher Lambert was fantastic as Tarzan, and Greystroke: The Legend of Tarzan is easily the ultimate Tarzan film.
by The Krypton Kid
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Nov. 14, 2012, 11:01 p.m. CST
A shaven white man, raised in the jungle. No malaria, no yellow fever, no guinea worm infection
by Atkinson
Sure, Tarzan is totally realistic.
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Lambert is less Tarzan than the Disney cartoon version (and I like Lambert otherwise) Greystoke was the best of a bunch of bad choices….very weak. It was not a bad movie…but it was a horrible and barely recognizable rendition of Tarzan.
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Nov. 14, 2012, 11:22 p.m. CST
Tarzan's Greatest Adventure, John Guillermin, Sean Connery
by sasquatch_with_a_swatch_watch
is an absolutely beautiful fucking motion picture the Tarzan films under the Sy Weintraub era, 60's- 70's (Gordon Scott, Jock Mohoney, Mike Henry), are beautiful and stylish technicolor films that today's directors would be well served by taking a look at. There still has been no on on the screen one to equal the simple primitive strength and grace of Gordon Scott, or Johnny Weissmueller for that matter.
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or Charlie Hunnam, or...? This Skarsgard guy looks like an underwear model, or another ribbed shirt Twilight pretty boy, and has none of the essential pulp weight in his face to play ERB's Tarzan. Realistically, the only representation of Tarzan to even come close to the ERB stories is Loe Lara on the low budget TV series Tarzan: The Epic Adventures.
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Nov. 14, 2012, 11:36 p.m. CST
Marc Dacascos and Christophe Gans of Brotherhood of the Wolf wanted to make a Tarzan movie
by sasquatch_with_a_swatch_watch
There are five minutes in Brotherhood of the Wolf that are the best Tarzan film ever made. And precisely what this franchise need is a writer/ director who understands moody cinematography and Frazetta/ Kubert playbook, and just maybe, maybe the story will be treated with the fidelity and pulp gravitas that it needs. Yates is a pretty good director when it comes to monster movie shadows and brooding archetypes. A Tarzan movie should not include even a single frame of CGI.
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Nov. 14, 2012, 11:39 p.m. CST
[insert fan favorite of the moment here] would make a perfect Tarzan
by sasquatch_with_a_swatch_watch
no This is as bad as people suggesting Whedon or Abrams for Star Wars
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Nov. 14, 2012, 11:46 p.m. CST
cast around from the Game of Thrones or Downtown Abbey pools
by sasquatch_with_a_swatch_watch
An Englishman or Australian who understands method acting... I'm thinking an unknown with Russel Crowe circa- Master and Commader- era sized chops. Or Val Kilmer before the mashed potatoes. Casting is a must and an actor who can disappear into the role, or what you get is Johnny Depp... a face and a personality, but not quite a pirate.
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Nov. 15, 2012, 4:30 a.m. CST
I think the sequel should be called Twozan with Hulk Hogan as the baddie
by Chaffro
Quit aping around, brother.
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Nov. 15, 2012, 4:53 a.m. CST
Will Samuel L Jackson actually bother to act in this one, or will he just be playing another 'bad ass' fantasy caricature of himself again?
by Stegman84
The latter, you say. My, who would have guessed? Next thing you'll be telling me that the man will show up to the opening of a can of coke, just so long as there is a check in it for him... Oh, right.
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Man, I hate to be that nerd, but for a book/character that has never really been faithfully translated to screen (Greystoke was closest but far from perfect), this is again fairly unfaithful to Burroughs' work. Aside from the fact that it's John Clayton, not Thomas, the first book was set around 1910. A Tarzan movie set years after his integration into society would be set around WWI. NOT during Victoria's reign, which ended in 1901. Tarzan is early 20th Century pulp, not Victoriana. This is a bit like Van Helsing, where the character in that movie was not Abraham Van Helsing from Dracula at all (I think he was called Gabriel), or Tom Sawyer in LXG, where Sawyer was 2 or 3 decades younger than Twain's character would have been at the time it was set. Yeah, they're using the name and the basic premise but yet again the source material is thrown out the window.
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I loved the Tarzan books, really. But there has never, ever, been a more racist book series. Pure "Nature over nurture", pure white Gods over black savages, pure fantasy (as are all of these "raised by animals in Africa" films--so Apes never kidnapped a black child and raised it? Really?), and pure white superiority. In the second or third Tarzan film, Burroughs says it straight out "white men have imagination, black men have little, animals have none." Whoa. Pretty clear. In addition, Tarzan being attracted to an ape, but not a black woman, blacks being described as "unusually attractive--almost Caucasian in nature" and so forth. That is at the core of it, and the core is rotten. No matter what you do, you're just putting lipstick on a pig.
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Which is fine by me. I hope he has a regular role in Shield tv series.
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Nov. 15, 2012, 7:08 a.m. CST
Should have gotten a Richard Pryor scripted Tarzan movie when we had the chance.
by Christian Sylvain
Now it's too late :(
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Nov. 15, 2012, 7:46 a.m. CST
Olivia Wilde for Jane. Me, Wild man, You Wilde Woman
by StatelyWayneManor
Oh, and John Morrison should be Tarzan.
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with Joe Lara back in the mid-nineties, there has never been a faithful or accurately adapted version of Tarzan (Nope, not Greystoke either..they amped up the faux realism ala Dark Knight, but Burroughs writings delve well into the pulp/fantasy realm) and from the sound of things here, that trend is set to continue. Skaarsgard has the height, however and with a dye-job and a lean protein diet could easily make a convincing John Clayton. Also, gotta agree with Hipshot on his ambivalent regard toward these novels. I've read about half of them and they are very compelling reads, but also very telling of the racial attitudes of the time. Burroughs was still capable of writing intelligent, heroic black characters though, and didn't appear to carry the out-and out hatred of say a Robert E. Howard.
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are noble, intelligent and civil characters. I'd much rather them then some contrived, anachronistic "mercenary" sidekick played by the overexposed (but still awesome) Mr. Jackson. Give some other black actors a chance for once!
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...I liked Alec Baldwin's Shadow. Kill me now.
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i am sick of these baby faced scrawny teen/twenty something girls trying to play real women on the screen. natalie portman is a perfect example. just like how maggie gyllenhall was much better in batman than katie holmes. chicks that look 16 just dont cut it, as well this new emo twilight pretty boy bullshit thats being cast as tarzan
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I read the books and while it's a far cry from what happened there, I felt Yates did a fantastic job with the Deathly Hollows films. I was genuinely worried they'd never get the confrontation right or Snape's final scenes right but he did a great job in my view. How is it anti-climatic? I'm not knocking or insulting here...genuinely curious as to why Yates DH films were bad? Personally, I would have loved to see Curon finish the entire thing after Azkaban and I also think Yates stumbled a bit with his early Potter stuff (OotP, HBP) but got it together by the time he did DH1&2. Someone called them 'serviceable' and while I think they're a little better than that (I wouldn't compare it to something a genuinely "serviceable" director like Rattner would have made), it's certainly not portraying them to be crap. Why the bad views? Why anti-climatic? Color me curious.
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I'm a Kidd supporter, but let's not be downright idiotic. He is Sons of Anarchy's Charlie Hunnam. And don't give me any "I don't watch tv" bullshit. Glad to see he is getting some big screen work, along with his SOA co-star Perlman. (They also did another one that this site had the trailer for, looked fuckin terrible). But this guy would be nowhere without SOA which attracts a shitload of viewers.
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Haven't seen it in over 10 years, and I was on a Lambert kick when I did see it, thanks to Highlander. Even saw that TERRIBLE mafia flick he did, think it was called the Sicilian. Anyway, I remember digging Greystoke, especially when that old kook slid down the stairs and killed himself.
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Nov. 15, 2012, 10:43 a.m. CST
Ugh, Tarzan was a racist character create by racist white men. Really really need this crap don't we.
by ragermac
Another white man saves the world from the savage people movie. It has been done tons of times and we just had a recent one, its called Avatar. Keep shitty Tarzan in the past with all of the other shitty old characters like Zorro, the Shadow etc...
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Not just the ones mentioned here either... I read Flemming's 'Casino Royale' and enjoyed it so went with the next in the book series 'Live and Let Die' and couldn't get past the racism enough to even get a third of the way through it. Now, I don't know if Flemming was a true racist or one of the more common passive-racists (mostly unconsciously but still very racist) but either way, it's a massive distraction in the overall story being told. We're not talking racist characters specifically but the way Flemming himself portrayed dialog by minorities. How he described their mannerisms, etc...the dialog descriptions alone were cringe inducing. Yes, really, its that bad. But yet does anybody suggest we dump Bond himself? And don't forget that amidst the "white man saves world from non-white man savage" is the far more common and ubiquitous "men save woman aka 'damsel' in distress" to the point of all but turning women into "prizes" and "treasures" or non-character 'macguffins' as we might call them today. And yet most women tend to think strippers and pornography are the main objectifying forces dehumanizing their gender? I guess I'm trying to differentiate the difference between real racism/sexism and the less overt patriarchal racist/sexist attitudes that colored most all mindsets the same prior to the 60s/70s. That patriarchal (read: white men superior as an non-discussed 'given') attitude is still all around us even if historically overt racism is not as common today as it was then, but I guess the question then becomes: is there a difference?
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Nov. 15, 2012, 11:01 a.m. CST
Guillermo del Toro was attached to a TARZAN film a while back
by godoffireinhell
I remember something about him reading all the TARZAN novels in the order they were originally published as preparation. No idea if he'd have been right for the property since I never read any of ERB's books but supposedly there are monsters in some of the stories and a more horror-themed, maybe even Lovecraftian TARZAN film would definitely be something I could work up some interest for.
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Nov. 15, 2012, 11:08 a.m. CST
Skarsgård is 6 ft 4 and around 220 lbs. Definately a large guy.
by tradeskilz
With some personal trainers and some steroids he will easilly bulk up to a respectable size for this role.
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Sort of a combo of the lanky and lethal assassin that Robert Patrick's T1000 exemplified (which was also Cameron's original intention when he had Lance Henrickson in mind for the T800), and a bit of the muscular brute force style of Arnold's iconic portrayal. Not as a replacement for the T800 Arnold version, but as a new model of terminator.
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I'd say Bond was just tribalistic--the Brits or anything connected to them are superior, y'know. Tarzan is deeper--a statement of nature over nurture so deep that "an English gentleman raised by apes is still an English gentleman." That is breeding up the wazoo. I really, truly don't know how to rework that so that the story makes sense without that attitude. Bond, in comparison, is damned near Liberal.
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Nov. 15, 2012, 12:06 p.m. CST
Oh, yeah...let him stay in the jungle. Origin flashback
by StatelyWayneManor
Get right to the action. No origin story. Everyone knows he was raised by apes.
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That would be so awesome, yet he hasn't mentioned the word for a very long time now. He said his Tarzan would be bada$$. I would love to see that.
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Christine Hendricks in a tight fitting, button down Safari outfit!
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Can we please move into the 21st Century? Tarzan just doesn't hold up.
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He is the male Jessica Biel. End it with an elephant stampede. Ywia
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Nov. 15, 2012, 3:48 p.m. CST
We already have the definitive Tarzan film. It is GREYSTOKE: THE LEGEND OF TARZAN, LORD OF THE APES
by planetran_fan
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Why would they change his name other than apathy to the character? Not. A. Good. Start.
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Nov. 15, 2012, 6:27 p.m. CST
Greystoke, by the Chariots of Fire director, took itself waaay too seriously, to the point of deeming it neccesary to dub over Andie McDowell's voice with Glenn Close.
by sasquatch_with_a_swatch_watch
You can't exactly call yourself a Tarzan fan if you don't know the Gordon Scott films NO CGI APES!!
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from one ape 2 another, dacascos is too tiny to play tarzan, and a-skar is simply 2 old. we need some 1 unknown, some 1 who might excite those of the ape species like us folx. and with he cgi available today, no more dudes in ape suits !
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an ape such as myself is upset at folks like u. us apes demand as much respect as the rest of the human race -after all, yall descended from us apes, not the other way round fool !
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i agree, OWilde is assless and titless, but a lovely lady all the same - not rite 4 tarzan tho. i demand a well-endowed unknown lady, some 1 apes such as myself could get excited about
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The only overt issue essential to the books is a white man in Africa....and I say that’s not a big deal -AT ALL…every culture tends to write hero’s that they relate to…so what? And the Noble superior white man? Burroughs wrote this during the era where Eugenics was getting popular. We can easily separate that from race now by viewing Tarzan as a person with excellent Generics, which is really what Burroughs point was anyway- a man with great physical and mental genetics thrown into the heart of darkness. It’s also not “all” nature over nurture- as Tarzan himself not civilized…and often finds the basest animals more honorable in many ways than Civilized man.
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meant excellent genetics
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Burroughs was not as “black and white” as you imply -as already noted Burroughs had many noble African characters, and in his Barsoom novels, the Obsidian Black Martians were the more intelligent and technogically advanced masters of the pure white Martian Therns (and it was the White Martians that were the morally debased society that practiced cannibalism). Also if we want to leave this in the past maybe we need to talk about the founder of Planned Parenthood…a Eugenics supporter who wanted to eliminate black people…if the liberal precincts of our society can get over something actually sickening like that, we can certainly enjoy some harmless pulp fun like Tarzan without going into a tizzy.
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I'm almost proud I didn't know his name.
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