- Title: USA: WORLD PREMIERE OF LATEST WALT DISNEY CARTOON "TARZAN"
- Date: 19th June 1999
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) GLENN CLOSE SAYING OF THE FINAL FILM, "I think it ultimately, it was kind of a shock to first see it together, but then I forgot it was my voice, you know? It makes me very happy that a lot of children seeing this won't know that it's my voice. They'll think it's Kala speaking to them and more important."
- 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: LVADUU32I5UAO0Q4UW2GVXY2RL2Z
- 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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