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Coen Brothers to direct Billy Bob Thornton in a TARZAN movie'
Harry here, and before you start screaming at me read this:
Hey Harry, I don't know if you saw this or not but being a huge Coen brothers fan this put a huge smile on my face. The following is from an article about The Man Who Wasn't There by Ken Turan. It first appeared on Monday, May 14th:
Which is one of the reasons why the actor is jazzed about a notion floated by the "Man Who Wasn't There" filmmakers. "They want to do a Tarzan movie with me as Tarzan," he says, delighted. "I'd bulk up for them, wear my hair long. The Coens and Billy Bob Thornton do Tarzan. Not a bad idea. I'd do it in a second."
Don't know if it will happen, but man... nothing could beat this.
Mr. LittlejeansAlright, so I went over to the L.A. Times to check it out, and found the entire article here!!! Billy Bob really did say it, and Kenneth Turan didn't report it in a jesting manner. It seems he's serious.
Alright... Now let's examine this logically... Billy Bob Thornton is 45 (turning 46 this August). Other actors played TARZAN in the following age ranges: Lex Barker was 30-34, Buster Crabbe was 26-57, Ron Ely was 28-32, Christopher Lambert was 27, Elmo Lincoln was 29-36 (1st Tarzan btw), Jock Mahoney was 42-43, Gordon Scott was 28-33 and the greatest Tarzan of the all... Johnny Weismuller was 28-44.
That would make Billy Bob the oldest Tarzan to play the role... but we're not talking about a series here (at least I can't imagine the Coen's deciding to get into making a series of TARZAN movies... But I'll tell ya why this intrigues me...
I love my Tarzan films, but when it comes right down to it, nothing more than a B actor has played the role... And this is coming from a guy that was babysat by Johnny Weismuller as a child... ok? I don't want to hear about no love for the old TARZAN movies, cause I love em... but the fact is that the best TARZAN director was an eleven time Academy Award winner... not as a director, but for his work as one of Hollywood's premier Art Directors... that was Cedric Gibbons, an art director for 944 Hollywood films from 1919 to 1954... but directed only one film... which happens to be the best Tarzan movie ever.... TARZAN AND HIS MATE... but besides that one-shot... we've never seen a Great Director or Writer team do a TARZAN film.
Ok, now I believe we all have faith in the talent of the Coen Brothers... but what about the believability of Billy Bob Thornton as Tarzan? He'd probably be no younger than 47-48 when he took on the role. In PUSHING TIN he played a younger man... felt like he was in his mid-thirties... He also bulked up a bit for that role.... He can look rough and tumble... In THE MAN WHO WAS NOT THERE, he proved he can carry a movie by playing it basically mute... and with today's wires and stuff.... hell they can make us believe that Keanu can do Kung Fu, I'm sure they can sell me that Billy Bob can be king of the jungle.
Now... you folks haven't read TO THE WHITE SEA... In reality... TO THE WHITE SEA is a Tarzan novel... not like Tarzan you've seen on screen... I'm talking about the Burrough's white ghost of the jungle who would slit the throats of wandering and intrusive natives... the white ape that would slip a noose around a man's neck and break his neck to protect his territory. I'm talking about TARZAN... The Tarzan of the first few novels before he became a serialized puff character.
I'm talking ONE Tarzan film made by consumate filmmakers and one of the great actors we have working today... set in the thirties... shot by Roger Deakins with a score by Carter Burwell... It would be brutal and scary. Or their take could be a spoofy one in which case I'd go see it hoping they did it right but always griping about what it could've been if done serious... sigh.... Anyways... no matter what, this is a strange development eh?
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id rather have jolie as tarzan
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Sorry, Billy Bob just dosen't look anywhere NEAR the part for this one...
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Angelina Jolie as Tarzan! Barechested, loose-fitting loincloth, swinging around all the time, beating up Nazi poachers! She can get herself her own little Jane to play with, too...
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May 15, 2001 11:00:49 PM CDT
How many hours to Rama and wher is Horst Bucholtz when you need
by uncapie
Didn't they just have a Tarzan movie with that chimp Casper Van Dien not too long ago? Was it two years? Ahh, yes, we're about do for another one. I'd rather see Ginger Lynn riding her magical, interdimentional, transmutational Zebra, Gin-Gin bareback as "Mrs. Tarzan". Sort of like the crimefighting Kate Mulgrew in the short lived tv series, "Mrs. Columbo." "Hey, Trotsky; watch out for that tree! Do'h! I meant icepick!"
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My initial reaction to the thought of Billy Bob Thornton as Tarzan was to scoff, but then I realized that that had been my same reaction to the idea of Michael Keaton playing Bruce Wayne/Batman. You know what? I ate it up!
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Hate to repeat this, but you'd think filmmakers as bold and original as the Coens would steal the title of a 1983 3-d sex comedy starring Steve Guttenberg and Jeffery Tambor. I know titles get re-used all the time, and it's not like they're calling a new movie CITIZEN KANE, but the Coens usually have such quirky titles that it's a disappointment that they'd name their film something used so recently.
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.. spoof or serious, I'd love to see this!
Serious morso I think.
I was raised on Tarzan films (particularly Weismuller ones) and read some of the books (a long time ago mind) and would love to see what they could do with todays effects and by the Coens dammit! -
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Hugh Hudson, director of Greystoke, win an Oscar for Chariots of Fire? That sure wasn't a B picture in any way. Maybe it wasn't the best Tarzan picture, but it was a big budget major studio release helmed by a respected director with a Best Picture Oscar, written by another Oscar winner (Robert Towne), with SFX from yet another Oscar winner (Rick Baker). May I ask how a former set designer counts as "great filmmaker" and an Oscar winning director doesn't?
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If this ridiculous sounding project is true, not only Billy Bob would be the oldest guy ever to play Tarzan, he would also be the ugliest. Now I have visions of him in a loincloth. Ugh...
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In his last role before Dr.No...check IMDB if you don`t believe me
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Billy Bob is a good actor, but I think he's comes across as too much of a southern boy. I think a good Tarzan would be Thomas Jane (from Deep Blue Sea and *61); he has a dark intensity and a good physique. He would be great if they go for a dark, violent jungle adventure approach. He's also younger. Oh, and Harry -- you left Casper Van Dien off your list of Tarzans! Probably because that guy aspires to rise up to 'B' movie actor status...
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"Tarzan's Greatest Adventure," he played some guy named O'Bannion. Check it out on imdb if you don't believe me.
This whole "Tarzan" thing smells like a joke, like they were all goofing around one night, not enough sleep, and started laughing about the most outrageous movie ideas possible. Yeah, Billy Bob as Lord Greystoke. Greenlight that baby right after the Arnold Schwarzenegger/Henry David Thoreau biopic, and the Sly Stallone/Poe epic. What next? Keanu Reeves as a human being?
Gotta admit though-it sure would look neato-keen with that B&W cinematography style. -
May 16, 2001 7:35:40 AM CDT
Hey, since we know that they are actually going forward with MIC
by vondoom
anything, anything is possible.
Next up JLo in Einstein: Flygirl
By Night -
I was able to get some of the script.
///////////////////////////
mmmm hmmm...
Reckon you wanna know what Im'a doin out here...
Reckon cause I killed somebody...
My father was a hard working man most of his life...
Not that I can say the same for myself... mmm hmmmm
He was an English Lord and what not...
Reckon he was from a place name a Greystoke... mmm hmmmm
We moved down here to Africer... The kids back in
England made quite a bit of sport of me ... The king
was a cruel feller so he sent me and my folks down here.
My father had me living in a tree out the back of the main
tree house... mostly I just sat on a branch and looked
at the ground...
One day my mom was late coming out to gimme my
bible lesson... then I heard a noise up in the
main tree. So, I climb up there to look... mmm hmmm
My mom was lying there one the floor with no clothes on.
A goriller was on top of her. Having his way with her.
mmmm hmmmmm
I just seen red. I picked up a sling blade...
Some folks call it a Kaiser blade...
I call it a sling blade... mmm hhhmmm
Got a handle, kinda like a axe handle... with a blade shapped like a bannaer...
Well,,, I hit the Goriller in the neck... plum near cut his head off...
mmm hmmm...
My mom jumped up and said. "What did u kill the monkey for... what did you kill
the monkey for....???"
I realized she didn't mind what that Goriller was doing to her at all....
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May 16, 2001 8:41:35 AM CDT
Yeah. Right. And I'm gonna be Britney Spears co-star in a porn
by silentbob x
Thornton as Tarzan? Now that's
creative casting. Maybe Heath
Ledger or Matt Damon. But Billy
Bob? What was he smoking when he
said that? Just because his main
squeeze is doing Tomb Raider is no
reason for him to nurture delusions of granduer. Don't do it, Billy Bob. Please. Snoogans. -
no- do it Tarzan in civilization, shades of the Jungle Lord emerging, but not in the Jungle, please
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I think I'd rather see Russell Crowe as Tarzan. Now if they were to have him in it I'd really go see that one. As for Cheetah, I think if Billy Bob is Tarzan than Michael Jackson should plat his chimp sidekick. He'd obviously have to audition for the role behond his pet chimp Bubbles.
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Seriously, if they're thinking of doing Dark Knight Returns, why not Tarzan Returns? He could have to come out of retirement to save Boy.
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That is all. Oh, and that I don't believe this. Thornton is goofing. He can make jokes like this because he's married to AJ.
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Heh...not really. Anyway, Tarzan has been done to death!! Let the character rest in peace...
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This will be like the "Hook" of Tarzan movies!
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May 16, 2001 9:18:17 PM CDT
Keaton sucked as Batman, and Thornton would suck as Tarzan
by kingkrypton
Keaton practically sleepwalked his way thru the batman films, with that dull monotone of his and his oh-so-slow movements. The only time he ever seemed to be anything more than comatose was when he and Nicholson had their screaming match in Basinger's apartment. Otherwise an oak plank would have had more depth and emotion than Keaton did. As for Thornton as Tarzan, this ranks right up with Jon Peters' visions of DC characters as one of the all-time stupidest suggestions I've ever heard! I mean, come on! Tarzan is supposed to be young, fit, regal, and good-looking. Thronton looks too much like an aged hillbilly. WTF are the Coens thinking, if they're thinking at all? If they're gonna do something this stupid, then they might as well bring in the aforementioned Peters to produce it, just to complete the idiocy! Cast Christina Aguilera, Pink, and Lil' Kim as Cheeta, Boy, and Jane! Have Yoko Ono compose the score! Have the BATTLEFIELD EARTH guys do the camera work! I mean, give me a break. Doesn't Tarzan deserve better respect than this?
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The Coens are consumate filmmakers. Always interesting. Billy Bob is a fine actor in his own way. But them doing a Tarzan movie??? Sorry that would never fly. These days if you're going to do Tarzan, a better choice would be Mark Wahlberg, or almost anyone under 35. But Tarzan is tricky, perhaps some of you remember that god-awful Casper Van Dien effort a few years ago. I actually went to see it, poor me. Tarzan could be very cool, but casting Billy Bob as Tarzan is about the worst idea I've heard since they cast Tobey Maguire as Spiderman.
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Hugh Hudson is not considered a great filmmaker because..... he isn't, sure he got that oscar, but then he did crap like Greystoke, Revolution, I Dreamed of Africa. The guy has no idea how to handle actors. He has great visuals, but that's it.
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Nice thingies. We get matching monkey tatoos. Why your brother follow us into tree house? Him can bunk with Cheetah.
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I can't wait to see Carl Childers swing from a vine and HACK someone to pieces with a banana!
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May 17, 2001 1:25:50 AM CDT
picture Billy Bob in a only a loin cloth. ....give me a second,
by grimly
Michael Keaton passed as Batman because Batman was a suit. Billy Bob as Tarzan? ... ha ha, he he he, BWAH HA HA HA
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It's about time Hollywood grew up. Africa is a continent populated by AFRICANS, mostly BLACK! Doesn't Hollywood have the guts to make a film that IS NOT about some white guy outsmarting the natives of color in their own land, about all the things that would be their second nature? Haven't we grew up passed the idea that any adopted son of an ape would be smarter than the native Africans as long as he was a white guy. When a movie is made about African natives (Disney's Lion King), THE CHARACTERS ARE ANIMALS, NOT EVEN PEOPLE. Wakeup folks, there are people there folks, been there since the beginning of human existence. Because most Africans happen to be black, Hollywood neglects the untold numbers of stories and legends that existed (BEFORE EUROPE decided to exploit the land) of interest to general audiences of all colors. To continue the portrayal of the Tarzan myth is the height of insult to EVERYONE. I'll pass on this movie or any other Tarzan movie made.
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Surely If Thornton Can keep up with Jolie, He can Swing through a few trees.???
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