Warner Bros. throws in the towel on ‘Tarzan’ update

It sounds as though Warner Bros. planned "Tarzan" movie has run out of vines to swing on.

Perhaps due to the colossal box office failure of another Edgar Rice Burroughs-penned pulp property (Disney’s “John Carter”), or maybe because the studio just doesn’t want to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a movie about a loincloth-wearing, tree-climbing hero, Warner Bros. has reportedly thrown in the towel on “Tarzan,” which was already well into pre-production and set to start shooting this year.

Filmmaker David Yates (Harry Potter series) remains attached to direct the project, with Alexander Skarsgard in line to play the orphaned English noble who is raised by great apes. With no firm start date, “Tarzan” will likely lose both those talents to other projects. Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain (“Zero Dark Thirty”) was also rumoured to be in talks for the role of Jane, Tarzan’s love interest. Studio sources tell Deadline that budget concerns are the primary reason for the projects indefinite postponement.

“Tarzan” isn’t the only project to suffer this fate. Warner Bros. has a long history of cancelling projects for budgetary reasons – even after spending millions on pre-production and hiring.

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In 1997, the studio spent an estimated $30 million on the pre-production of “Superman Lives!” -- a Tim Burton-directed superhero film starring Nicolas Cage as a big screen version of DC Comics’ Man of Steel -- before canning the project for creative and financial reasons. Similarly, the studio’s long-in-development big budget adaptation of the groundbreaking Japanese anime film “Akira” was shut down for the fourth time last year over money concerns, leaving director Albert Hughes (“The Book of Eli”), star Garrett Hedlund (“Tron: Legacy”), and the film’s Vancouver pre-production crew in the lurch.

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More recently, Warner Bros. cancelled the $130 million “Arthur & Lancelot” because company brass was reportedly hesitant to spend that kind of dough on two untested leads: “The Killing” star Joel Kinnaman and “Game of Thrones” star Kit Harington.

It’s possible that the recent failure of "Jack the Giant Slayer," Bryan Singer’s $195 million fantasy film, played some role in the studio re-evaluating its current finances (the film has only made about $62 million at the North American box office). “Tarzan” may have simply been a victim of Warner Bros.’s accountants. The studio should be sure to consider the performance of Disney's 1999 animated film about the jungle character. The $130 million "Tarzan" (which was also a musical!) made nearly $450 million globally.

If upcoming Warner movies like “Man of Steel,” “Pacific Rim,” and “The Hangover Part III” prove profitable ventures, it’s likely that “Tarzan” could be resurrected from his long cinematic slumber -- hopefully without the song and dance numbers, though.