Tarzan is getting yet another remake

Everyone’s favourite vine-swinging jungle hero is getting yet another remake, only eight years after the last attempt. Many adaptations have been made of the Tarzan story, originally a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

The Legend of Tarzan (2016) was an unimpressive reimagining of the character and the story, and now, it is reported that Sony Pictures has bought the movie rights to Tarzan. Sony is aiming to commit to a “total reinvention” of Tarzan, updating the original story’s gender-dynamics, and depictions of colonialism and racial stereotypes which are unpalatable and problematic to a 21st century audience.

It looks like we’re set for one more Tarzan story, whether we like it or not.

Taylor Swift reveals new track

With Taylor Swift’s Midnights album due to drop October 21, Swift is drip-feeding the names of its songs. The latest, we learned, is second track “Maroon,” she revealed at midnight on her social accounts.

“Maroon” is the fifth track name announced from Midnights, her tenth studio album, and Swift’s first since her Billboard 200 leading LP Evermore from 2020.

Midnights will be released in four separate editions of coloured vinyl. Collect them all, flip them over and the artworks piece together as a clock. Her website is offering a set of four walnut wood shelves, plus a brass clock centrepiece featuring two wooden hands that read “Taylor Swift” to turn the vinyls into a functioning clock. Midnights, she explained, is “a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams. The floors we pace and the demons we face. For all of us who have tossed and turned and decided to keep the lanterns lit and go searching — hoping that just maybe, when the clock strikes twelve… we’ll meet ourselves.”

New Planet of the Apes movie

Another Planet of the Apes movie — Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes — is well on its way, with Wes Ball in the director’s chair. We got some cast-members too: Owen Teague, Freya Allen, and Peter Macon.

As for the plot, it is still the same timeline as the previous trilogy of action movies, taking place some years after War for the Planet of the Apes. It will be released somewhere in 2024.

We also got our first look, with concept art from the adventure movie. It shows an ape on horseback, interacting with a large bird, as a ruined, overgrown city stands behind him. This suggests we could see quite a time jump. War for the Planet of the Apes is set 12 years after Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and the level of degradation is this image looks considerably beyond that.

Published in Dawn, Young World, October 8th, 2022