Following Warner Bros. failed attempts at rebooting the property, Sony has now picked up the rights to adapt Tarzan for the big screen. First created by prolific author Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan is the
orphaned son of a British Lord and Lady who was marooned on the coast of Angola and was raised in the African jungle by a tribe of great apes. Over the years Tarzan’s story has been adapted countless
times for film and television, beginning with the 1918 silent film Tarzan of the Apes and even inspiring an animated adaptation by Disney in 1999.
In 2016 Warner Bros. was the last major studio to attempt to reinvigorate the Tarzan franchise with Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts director David Yates. While Yates’ The Legend of Tarzan featured an all-star cast that included Alexander Skarsgård, Margot Robbie, Christoph Waltz, and Samuel L. Jackson, the studio reportedly lost an estimated $40 million on the film and the result was savaged by critics. While Warner Bros.
had initially hoped the film would spawn a sequel, those plans were shortly dashed following The Legend of Tarzan’s disappointing release.
