Lord Of The Jungle

Kids today don't really seem to be down with old Tarzan. Nowadays it's all Xena and Neo that these young'uns expect to save them from certain peril with nary a thought to the loincloth-sporting ape-man who shepherded earlier generations through times of trouble. Luckily though the semi-clad savage is making a comeback with Charlie's Angels 2 writer, John August, commissioned to write a big-budget film that will once more see our hero swinging through the jungle canopy. Some of you will primarily associate him with the Disney feature or the utterly brilliant seventies cartoon, while others may recall the endless live-action incarnations that started in the thirties and were summarily buried by Christopher Lambert's efforts in Greystoke, but Tarzan finds his roots in Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1912 novel, Tarzan of the Apes. It is the original source that this latest story will use as a template, propelling the jungle hero into the twenty first century. "The movie versions of Tarzan always portray him as a sort of jungle hippie," producer Jerry Weintraub told Variety. "Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan is a much different character. He's more ferocious and wild, like Wolverine without the claws. That's the version we want to use."