The king of the jungle is coming back! Sony Pictures has successfully gained movie rights to Tarzan from the organization of the franchise’s rightful creator, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. However, given the complicated nature of the film industry, there has obviously come up a predicament in association with Sony taking over the movie, and it’s not one that’s going to go unnoticed.
The only announcement that the entertainment company has made about the movie, seems to be not sitting right with the public in general. The filming hasn’t even started yet, and the prospect of this movie is already upsetting people.
Sony plans on re-inventing Tarzan to fit into the 21st century
Apparently, Sony’s plans on making this movie involve a “total re-invention” of Tarzan’s character so that it can fit the 21st century.
However, with no writers, producers, or filmmakers known to be associated with the film yet, nobody knows how exactly it is that Sony is going to create an entirely new movie with a completely different portrayal of Tarzan.
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But even the mere idea is not impressing fans, so it’s going to be a bit of a gamble when the actual result comes out.
The story behind everyone’s favorite childhood character
Growing up, Burroughs’s fictional character had been looked upon as a great figure by innumerable children. It didn’t take long for the story to turn into one of the most popular cult classics.
Though the character was first created in 1912, various adaptations of the story in the form of shows, cartoons, and movies, have surfaced since then. Even so, the baseline has somehow always remained the same – an orphaned boy who is raised by a group of apes in the vast jungle, who gradually turns into one of the strongest entities there and finds out who he actually is at a later stage.
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This story, though seems quite simple, is in reality, inherently tainted by racism.
Starting with the very name, Tarzan, which means “white skin”, there are a lot of such problems with not only the early stories and books but the latest ones too. One such issue that is commonly found is the stereotypical depiction of native Africans, who are shown to be “bad and evil” villagers.
Tarzan being white and emerging superior to all before him, doesn’t help to lessen the story’s racial undertones either. It instead ends up turning into a tale as old as time wherein the white male is the symbol of power as he’s the only one capable of swooping in and saving the day. Neither the apes who raised him nor the other humans are shown to be nearly strong enough.
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Why is the prospect of a “new” Tarzan upsetting people?
The latest adaptation of Tarzan had been released as a live-action drama, named The Legend of Tarzan, courtesy of Warner Bros. It starred Alexander Skarsgard as Tarzan and Margot Robbie as Jane, the English woman Tarzan later falls in love with.
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This 2016 film was also more or less an attempt at revitalizing Tarzan in a new form as a character with different ideals and views. But it seems quite difficult to separate the character from his origin story and the values that had been instilled into him.
Similar is the case with Sony’s announcement about re-inventing Tarzan because what it really means is bringing a strange amalgamation of woke culture and racism to life. And naturally, nobody is going to be dying to see that. But only time will tell whether something good will actually come out of it or not.
No other details about the film have been shared yet.
Source: Twitter
