- Title: USA: WORLD PREMIERE OF LATEST WALT DISNEY CARTOON "TARZAN"
- Date: 19th June 1999
- Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JUNE 12) (REUTERS TV) EXTERIOR OF PREMIERE THEATRE ON HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD / PHIL COLLINS SPEAKING WITH REPORTERS GLENN CLOSE ARRIVING MINNIE DRIVER SPEAKING WITH REPORTERS MORE GLENN CLOSE AND MINNIE DRIVER SPEAKING WITH REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) GLENN CLOSE SAYING: "I found it hard to stay all alone in a sound booth and conjure up something that would be worth animating. It was, you know, you kind of had to keep your courage up at times, especially to make ape sounds." (SOUNDBITE) (English) MINNIE DRIVER SAYING OF TARZAN, "There's something just perennial about him. I don't know what it is, he's just a fantastic action character with a sweet heart." (SOUNDBITE) (English) PHIL COLLINS SAYING: "It's like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, you know, it's like, some characters just capture your imagination, I mean, the book is fantastic, the original book I read, I've never seen a "Tarzan" film so I don't really know, I don't quite understand that aspect of it, but certainly it's a lovely story and it lends itself beautifully to being animated." TV CAMERAS CUBA GOODING JR. BEING INTERVIEWED TONY GOLDWYN DOING A TARZAN CALL (SOUNDBITE) (English) TONY GOLDWYN SAYING: "It was fun. It was fun, yeah, especially when I saw how sexy he looks in real life and I didn't have to compete with it, you know, didn't even have to go to the gym, it was good" NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (MAY 21 1999) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) GLENN CLOSE SAYING: "All the classic fairy tales don't have mothers because mothers protect their children, and in order for something to happen to the child, you can't have the mother, so this is a rare movie, a rare story where a fiercely protective, nurturing mother can exist and the story can still take place so, I was very happy for many reasons to be asked to be that mother." (SOUNDBITE) (English) PHIL COLLINS SAYING OF SINGING IN OTHER LANGUAGES, "It dawned on me that this person, in another language, you don't say the same things, you know. The kind of phrases that we use in English don't actually literally translate. You have to have the sentiment translate, which means you're co-writing with someone and your partner really should be kind of carefully chosen. But fortunately, German and Spanish and Italian, it was no problem, but with French, it was just, some of the phrases were not quite what I meant, so we had to correct them."
- Embargoed: 4th July 1999 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA AND NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES AND FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA8WFMJ6WFCWPEMKRM67NTT1SBI
- Story Text: The Walt Disney Company shut down bustling Hollywood Boulevard in the middle of downtown Hollywood on Saturday, June 12 to hold its trademark extravagant World Premiere for its newest animated summer blockbuster "Tarzan" with music by Phil Collins.
With 47 previous movie adaptations to date, the legend of Edgar Rice Burroughs' immortal character Tarzan is said to be the second most filmed subject in Hollywood history, exceeded only by Dracula.Now it's Disney's turn to convert the classic tale of a man raised by apes deep in the African jungle into a full-length animated musical film for the first time.
To take on such an ambitious challenge, Disney turned to the directing team of Kevin Lima and Chris Buck, who together previously brought such blockbusters to the screen as "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin" and "The Lion King."
To bring the music to life, Lima and Buck brought on board former "Genesis" member and solo musical artist Phil Collins.
Not only did Collins write and perform five new songs for the soundtrack, he also went on to record those songs in four other languages, French, German, Italian and Spanish for the international film soundtracks.
Providing voices for the film are "Ghost" co-star Tony Goldwyn, who gives voice to Tarzan's muscular features, Glenn Close, who is Kala the ape, Tarzan's adopted mother, Oscar-nominated actress Minnie Driver, who plays the naive yet adventurous Jane, talk show host Rosie O'Donnell as the wise-cracking ape Terk, Nigel Hawthorne as Jane's eccentric father Professor Porter, and "Millennium" star Lance Henriksen as Tarzan's adopted father and patriarch of the gorilla family Kerchak.
One of the first challenges facing the filmmakers was deciding which part of the Tarzan legend they wanted their film to focus on.Rather than bringing Tarzan back to England and show him trying to fit into that society, they chose instead to focus on the relationship between Tarzan and his adopted ape mother Kala.
Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Tarzan of the Apes" was first bought by 'All-Story Magazine' for seven hundred US dollars and published in October of 1912.Despite the popularity of the magazine, it took two more years for the author to get a book deal and in 1914, the first Tarzan book was published and became an enormous best-seller.
Burroughs would go on to write 23 more movels dealing with Tarzan and, maintaining the merchandising rights to the character, he also pioneered the business of licensing and authorized such diverse "Tarzan" products as bread, bubble gum and bathing suits.
"Tarzan's" first leap to the big screen came in 1918 with a silent version starring Elmo Lincoln in the lead role.It became one of the first films in Hollywood history to gross over one million dollars.by 1932, swimming champion Johnny Weissmuller had inherited Tarzan's loincloth in a series of films.
Burroughs died in 1950 and was never really satisfied with any screen versions of his actor.However, according to his grandson, Danton Burroughs, who today manages the family enterprise, the new Disney version would have pleased his grandfather.
"Tarzan" opens in theatres throughout the United States on Friday, June 18. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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