After the success of King Kong, suddenly everyone sees money in resurrecting classic movie franchise properties. Warner Brothers wants to bring back Tarzan, and to do it, they want Hellboy’s Guillermo del Toro.
Guillermo grew up reading Spanish language translations of the original Edgar Rice Burroughs books, and thinks he can find new ground in those stories. He tells Variety, “I'd love to create a new version that is still a family movie, but as edgy as I can make it.” That sounds exactly like what Peter Jackson did with Kong to me. WB should be happy.
If he takes the job, Guillermo will not be writing the new movie. Warners has hired John Collee, who wrote the incredible Master and Commander to script it. Guillermo will leave him alone to do it, since he plans to be in the middle of making Hellboy 2 by then.
If they actually get Del Toro, this could be good. He’s a solid director with the right kind of sensibility for a project like this. I wonder who he’ll get to play Tarzan? As long as it’s not Brendan Fraser.
