Tag Archives: movie
John Carter featured in RogerEbert’s “The Unloved” series
When “John Carter” came out a couple of years ago, most critics hated it or were indifferent to it, and audiences stayed away; but it did have a few defenders, including me and Scout. We recently spent a half-hour on the phone talking about what a buoyant and sweet film it was to be so gigantic, and how the complaints that it was “derivative” of “Star Wars” and “Avatar” seemed ignorant of the fact that Burroughs wrote the original tales almost a century ago, when Mars was not just a nearby planet but a red blank slate upon which fantasies could be projected. Burroughs captured the imaginations of generations of future storytellers who cherry-picked his themes and images, and in so doing, unfortunately made them less remarkable. (Trivia note: the movie was originally called “John Carter of Mars,” but Disney dropped “..of Mars” when it became convinced that films about Mars never made money. Since “John Carter” was a box office failure anyway, I wonder what the studio executives told themselves—that if “..of Mars” had stayed in, it would’ve done even worse?)
Read the full article at: RogerEbert
Daybreak: Kellan Lutz on becoming Tarzan
How many times can Aled Jones say ‘loincloth’ in an interview? I ended up losing count…
The presenter was talking about the iconic outfit worn by Tarzan, who is again being brought to life in a new 3D digital movie, with ‘Twilight’ star Kellan Lutz creating the motion capture and voicing the titular character.
Lutz proved that he was ready to joke with the ‘Daybreak’ presenters, despite an early start, as he mocked Ranvir Singh for getting the time wrong. Singh is used to presenting the earlier news segment of the show and, as a result, she got the time wrong quite a few times this morning when she covered the rest of the programme. The ‘Daybreak’ team are used to correcting puzzled viewers on Twitter when they don’t realise they’re watching the show on itv1+1, but I’m sure they didn’t expect Ranvir to get confused!
When Lutz finally stopped teasing her, he spoke about his happiness at getting the opportunity to portray two popular figures in films this year. He said, “For me, growing up, I loved watching Disney movies… It’s a little boy’s dream come true playing Tarzan and Hercules.”
Read the full story at: Yahoo News
A comparison of Tarzan and Transcendence by the Hindu
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan was the very epitome of manliness. With his “straight and perfect figure, muscled as the best of the ancient Roman gladiators must have been muscled, and yet with the soft and sinuous curves of a Greek god, told at a glance the wondrous combination of enormous strength with suppleness and speed,” Burroughs was underlining the godliness of his creation. With long dark hair and steel-grey eyes, John Clayton, Lord Greystoke aka Tarzan is quite a hottie. Burroughs Tarzan of the Apes was published in a magazine in 1912 and in book form in 1914. The story tells of Tarzan’s parents marooned in the deepest Africa. His mother dies of natural causes when he is one year old and his father is killed by Kerchak an ape. Tarzan is brought up by a she-ape, Kala. The way he teaches himself to read is fascinating—referring to alphabets as black bugs!
Read the full story at: The Hindu
Tarzan Is Back With A Bang This Summer
Tarzan is all set to make a comeback this summer in May 2014. The modern day adaptation of the classic Edgar Rice Burroughs story will start Kellan Lutz in the title role.
The film also takes a rather original approach to the story, setting it in modern times, and even throwing in a giant meteorite from outer space.
Tarzan will be a 3D animated adventure film, which employs motion capture technology. In this film, Tarzan is actually the son of billionaire adventurers, who died in a plane crash. The villain is the man who took over Greystoke Industries, a company run by John Greystoke after Tarzan‘s parents died.
The young boy, whose original name is John Jr., known as JJ, but then is later called Tarzan, is found and adopted by the silverback gorilla Kala and raised as an ape.
As time passes by, Tarzan who has long since forgotten his roots, forgotten the terrible events of his childhood and has become a strong young man, who knows how to handle himself with great skill in even the most dangerous regions of the rainforest. He is fourteen years old when he discovers the beauty of nature during a venture outside of his usual territory.
Read the full story at: Business of Cinema
Cinema: Return of the ape-man
EDGAR Rice Burroughs’s classic tale of the “ape without fur” Tarzan, gets another remake that relies heavily on computer wizardry.
Visionary German director Reinhard Klooss directed, co-produced and wrote this animated masterpiece, targeting the younger generations.
His previous animated feature, Animals United, didn’t go well with the audience, although the film was lauded for its visuals.
In Tarzan, he pushes the envelope further with regards to computer animation which, combined with a good story, contribute to a worthy watch.
Read the rest of the story at New Straits Times
John Carter: Hero of Mars – Review from Sons of Corax
Far as I am concerned, there was only one major negative of John Carter: Disney screwed up the marketing big time and instead of a potential franchise, they ended up with a near-flop. And that is painful for me, since I enjoyed the movie. I’d seen the trailers before I went to watch it on the big screens, so I kind of had an idea of what it would be like, but since I’d never read any of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novels before, I didn’t know who the character was or what Barsoom really was. After watching the movie, everything changed for me.
Read the rest at: Sons of Corax