Another rumble in the jungle

 

Warner Brothers' upcoming blockbuster, The Legend of Tarzan, will open in Chinese mainland theaters on July 19.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Unlike most Tarzan screen productions, which are about his jungle upbringing, the latest cinematic version opens in Victorian England. Xu Fan reports.

Tarzan, the lord of the apes, may have never swung from branches in a Chinese forest. But now, thanks to China's booming movie market, he was in Beijing last week saying "I love China" in Mandarin.

To promote Warner Brothers' upcoming major release, The Legend of Tarzan, Alexander Skarsgard and Australian actress Margot Robbie, playing Tarzan's wife Jane, showed up for a two-day promotional tour in Beijing last week.

The film will open in mainland theaters in 3-D, IMAX 3-D and DMAX on July 19, around 20 days after its North American debut.

"It's a novel take, very different from previous Tarzan movies," Skarsgard tells reporters.

Unlike most Tarzan screen productions, which are about his jungle upbringing, the latest cinematic version opens in Victorian England in the 1880s.

Tarzan, or more accurately the aristocrat John Clayton III, has been living in London with his wife Jane for eight years, before he heads to Africa to investigate Belgium's enslaving of the Congo, unaware that he is entering a trap.

What follows, however, could then remind many fans of their favorite bedtime story.

From swinging off vines and jumping off cliffs to punching a gorilla, possibly the first superhero in modern times returns to a familiar routine on the big screen.