David Yates made Warner Bros a lot of money with his Harry Potter movie, but that doesn’t mean he gets the automatic greenlight for whatever he wants to do next. He’s been planning a new take on Tarzan, with Alexander Skargard set to don the loin cloth, with rumours Jessica Chastain could be his Jane.
However now Deadline reports that Warner has put the brakes on the project, due to concerns over the film’s budget, casting, and ability to shoot this year. The movie isn’t dead yet, but its back to the drawing board to see if it can be made cheaper and more in line with what the money men want.
Some films do come back from setbacks like this, such as Gore Verbinski’s The Lone Ranger, which got its shoot delayed while they trimmed the budget from $250 million to $215 million. However other films such as Alex Proyas’ Paradise Lost, Jaume Collet-Serra’s Akira, and David Dobkin’s Arthur & Lancelot got completely cancelled after the studio put the brakes on.
At the moment, the production office is being closed down due to a “high budget they just couldnt reduce to the level that made the studio comfortable.” It’s also noted that Jamie Foxx is being courted for a major role, but that a deal has not yet been made. The project could still come back to life and shoot in 2014, but we’ll have to wait and see.