Talking to Collider about all his upcoming projects, including the Tarzan reboot I’ve mentioned twice on this site, Hustle & Flow/Black Snake Moan director, Craig Brewer had this to say, with regards to the sensitive, potential explosive racial nature of the material… “I don’t want to give too much away of what I’m doing, but that is something I have thought about, and something I am addressing, and I can just say that “Tarzan” is a love story really, the movie I want to tell, that’s on the backdrop of this adventure, where Tarzan has to reconnect to his love, Jane, and to Africa itself. I know there’s probably going to be some concerns, in terms of racial attitudes toward the original films, and towards the books, but it’s territory that I’ve been in before… I don’t want to say I’m comfortable in it, because I think it’s best to stay a little uncomfortable, and be mindful of things that need to be sensitive, but I think it’s important to tell a great story from one of the most famous literary characters of all time.”

So far, you folks really haven’t had much reaction to my posts on the news of Brewer’s deal to reboot Tarzan for the big screen in a trilogy of films. No interest I guess? I figured you’ll be all up in arms about it, given the subject matter as well as the racist and imperialist elements within it. Just when I thought I had you all figured out 🙂

But seriously… maybe this will elicit some kind of a response… maybe not.

As I’ve already said… I’m cautiously curious about how exactly a studio-backed, live-action, big-budgeted contemporary Tarzan movie would play out… a trio of them actually. Based on the above quote, it appears Brewer might be sticking to the original Edgar Rice Burroughs story, which had our man raised in the “Jungles of Africa,” among the “great apes,” after his British parents are marooned on the West coast of the continent by mutineers…

Will Brewer have him leaping and swinging from tree branches like the apes, bellowing in the process? Or, since it’s a contemporary version, maybe he’ll be raised by African parents (not apes), and the story will center on an identity struggle.

*shrug*

Any ideas…

[Collider] via [The Playlist]