Kellen Lutz and Spencer Locke are the new Tarzan and Jane
May 4, 2012 August 9, 2015 Michael Sellers Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan, The Tarzan Files
From Hollywood Reporter
The Twilight star and Resident Evil actress will topline what will be a performance-capture 3D adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs jungle story.
Kellan Lutz, co-star of the Twilight movies, has signed on to star as the title character andSpencer Locke, perhaps best known for playing K-Mart in Constantin's Resident Evilmovies, has nabbed the role of Jane Porter. The movie will be a performance-capture 3D production.
Reinhard Klooss is directing the movie with Kloos also producing with Robert Kulzer.
Klooss, Yoni Brenner and Jessica Postigo wrote the script, which updates the classicEdgar Rice Burroughs jungle hero. For example, Tarzan's parents, billionaire adventurers, are now killed in airplane crash rather than being marooned with their child. And the movie's villain is the CEO of Greystoke Energies, a man who took over the company from Tarzan's deceased parents.
Read the rest at Hollywood Reporter
Comment: I haven't been following this terribly closely but seems to be this is good news in ERB-land. Any kind of vote of confidence like this has to help. The performance capture 3D approach could produce a stunning result if well handled.
Tagged edgar rice burroughs tarzan
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Randal Benjamin says:
I was excited about John Carter. I'm even a bigger fan of the Tarzan books. I even wrote a screen play based on the first book.(just for fun) I am not too excited about this venture. I believe the work should not be updated. It would work fine when placed in the first part of the 20th Century. One hundred years later… the story, to me would be problematic. Have wanted for years to see a faithful version of Tarzan of the Apes. Guess I will have to keep waiting. I'm sure I will go to see this but I am pretty sure I will walk out of the theater talking to myself.
I long for an adaption of ERB's Tarzan for my generation(young), the only Tarzan we've gotten was the animated movies and series I thoroughly enjoyed as a kid.
MCR says:
Yeah I was just going based on that picture. Doing a quick Google search and well maybe not. But then again I'm sure most of you remember the constant debate about Lynn Collins and how she looked in photos so I guess we need to cut Ms. Locke some slack. Besides as you said Dotar it's motion capture so they can shape her into their version of Jane.
Dotar Sojat says:
MCR wrote:
Is it just me or does Spencer Locke actually make for an attractive-and right-Jane? How many actual blondes have played the part?
Based on that photo, I was having almost the same thought (yikes, a mind-meld with MCR, what's happening?);-) But years of looking at head shots and finding out that they don't look much like the person,
So I did an image search and looked at some interviews and I'm not so sure. I guess since it's motion capture it doesn't matter much, they can mold her to look more like she does in this photo.
Kevin Sanderson says:
Keep in mind that animation directors are a good choice for any CG animated feature because… they know and get the technology. I don't trust live action directors with heavy CG because they are usually used to using CG just for VFX. That's the Polar Express problem. Zemeckis is a good director, but I have never been convinced he knew how to work with the CG folks. I've seen less experienced but proficient animators working by themselves turn out much more life-like CG humans. It may be also the time constraints they are working with. It takes days to animate a few seconds using the current systems. But there are new tools coming that will allow for real-time animation. Do a search for Crytek's CryENGINE Cinema Sandbox and you'll find a new program coming out the middle of this year designed specifically for studio work that will speed the production process. Faster production will enable the time for doing all the tweaking needed for eyes and such to get the characters out of the uncanny valley – or they can go the more stylized route and not worry as much.
pascalahad says:
In this article, it is said that Warner Bros is also on the line to produce a Tarzan movie. The next "studio war" after this year's Snow White projects?
http://www.nextmovie.com/blog/kellan-lutz-tarzan/
In fact, we'll be lucky if the director/writers read Burroughs at all. Time will tell.
Checking the directorial record of M. Kloos on IMDB, we see mostly many CG-funny animals. Hadly seems the kind of animation for a serious adaptation, unless they completely change the style. Yonni Brenner co-wrote Ice Age 3. Not very reassuring at this point.
Having a night to think about it it's a 50-50. Dotar is right-whatever it takes to introduce ERB's work to new readers I'm for. But I don't know beyond that. The motion capture idea might be interesting if done right but I'm afraid it will be another Polar Express with dead eyes and that uncanny valley effect. I guess I just feel that at this point another retelling of Tarzan's origins isn't all that thrilling a concept (sort of why I'm not enthusastic about Zach Synder's Superman reboot). I would rather see something different or closer to ERB-how about we get to Opar with La or something like that. That said I'll wait and see. It might work. I'll leave this with two closing remarks. Is it just me or does Spencer Locke actually make for an attractive-and right-Jane? How many actual blondes have played the part? The second one is this-I'll give it a shot but the first time I hear the director say "I'm a fan despite the Tarzan character…"
Ralok (oh why bother you know I am Eric) says:
I am highly against updating a work of fiction for it to take place in the modern era . . .
Honestly though, I dont think it would hurt the tarzan story that much . . . and in some ways I feel like this specific way of updating the story . . . actually resolves some issues I had with the original
In fact when I first heard the news that Disney was to adapt John Carter, I half-hoped it would be fully CGI/performance capture. To me it seemed a very good way to adapt the novel, if they could avoid the dead-eyes syndrome. But CGI animators are getting better at it.
It's good news, I look forward to it.
Rip Aycock says:
If memory serves me, the "parents killed in a plane crash" thing was first used in the old Weissmuller Tarzan movie to explain how "Tarzan Finds A Son," his third movie in that role, so this isn't anything new. And the villain being the CEO of Tarzan's corporation, determined to see that Tarzan doesn't reclaim his fortune was used in the last "Tarzan" TV series, which lasted about 6 episodes.
Is this new script by any chance going to come up with anything new and unique? Even by accident?
As much as I want to see Burroughs' work brought to the attention of the world, I would really prefer that it be at least recognizable as being true to his original stories.