Considering that the last Tarzan movie did not do well, Sony reimagining Tarzan makes sense. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that the franchise-starved studio has picked up the rights for the Lord of the Jungle from Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.
The word THR uses is “reinvent.” Potatyto, Potahto.
Tarzan occupies a weird place in popular culture right now. The idea of Tarzan still has a hold on the imagination. Who doesn’t want to pretend to swing through the trees? Who hasn’t tried to give that famous yell? But it’s hard to ignore the whiffs of colonialism and white savior tropes present, especially in the early books. Win Scott Eckert did a good job ignoring them entirely in the most recent authorized novel. Even then, it contains a post-script in which Lord Greystoke plans to advocate for Waziri independence. Somehow, Disney got around it with their animated version, focusing on the “raised by apes” part and a powerful soundtrack by Phil Collins. He might have still been Lord of the Jungle, but it was really more Lord of His Family.
So if you’re Sony, what do you do to reimagine Tarzan for the 21st Century? It’s still possible to be lost in the jungle, but less likely than it once was.
No writer, no director, and no stars have been identified.
As a trademark, Tarzan is owned by ERB, Inc. You might be able to work around that by calling him Lord of the Jungle, though Dynamite Comics does have an agreement with ERB. The first few novels lie in the public domain, so by going to ERB, Inc., it seems Sony doesn’t want to just retell those early stories for the 21st Century. Burroughs’ later novels still reside with his estate. Let’s call out that right now if you want to own copies of the public domain stories, you should still go through them. Their editions are gorgeous.
It’s a story we’ll keep an eye on. Rumor has it that both Ric Bretschneider and I have invitations to visit the Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. offices before the year is out.
