Sony Pictures has picked up the screen rights to Tarzan from the Burroughs’ estate, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., and is seeking to do a “total reinvention” of the character and intellectual property.
Why is there such a love relationship between Hollywood and Tarzan? Quite simple. The first Tarzan movie, Tarzan of the Apes appeared in 1918 and made 1.5 million dollars. Three sequels followed in the next four years. Edgar Rice Burroughs’ original 1912 novel Tarzan of the Apes has made money for newspapers, radio, TV, movies, books and comics till today. Tarzan just keeps swinging from year to year leaving behind bags of money.