Stephen Sommers to direct TARZAN
Guillermo del Toro drops out due to his 4 year stint on THE HOBBIT.
Once Stephen Sommers is done with the G.I. Joe's, he will move to the jungle and lense a new epic take on Tarzan according to The Hollywood Reporter. Titled Tarzan, Lord of the Apes - the movie will not go to it's original Edgar Rice Burrough's early 20th century literature for inspiration, instead it will be a pick and choose, meshing together the best translations of the character from comics, film and more from the past 90 years.
Sommers will co-write the script with his G.I. Joe scribe Stuart Beattie. Producing will be Ocean's Eleven's Jerry Weintraub and his Jerry Weintraub Productions.
Two years ago we got very excited for a "dark fantastical" adaptation of the character that was to be directed by a recently in the spotlight (after Pan's Labyrinth) Guillermo del Toro from a script by John Collee (Master and Commander) but del Toro would decide to quickly work on Hellboy II: The Golden Army and then follow that up with the dream job of directing Middle-Earth.
Warner Bros. couldn't possibly wait for him no longer, and have swiftly moved for the veteran summer blockbuster director of Van Helsing, The Mummy, The Mummy Returns and G.I. Joe.
A much younger and naive Sommers also directed an awful mid 90's live adaptation of The Jungle Book.
He is no stranger to big budget tentpole epics and I dare say this will be a much friendlier to the general audience version of the character than what del Toro would have gone for. The only down side of del Toro working on The Hobbit for so long is projects like these which we would have LOVED to see him tackle, fall into the hands of less interesting directors.