Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. and Dynamite Entertainment Join Forces
to Relaunch Original "John Carter: Warlord of Mars" DigitalJournal.com
Newsarama.com
Tarzana, CA and Mt. Laurel, NJ ~ May 20, 2014
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., the company founded by the author to protect and maintain his literary creations, and one of the comics industry's leaders, Publisher Dynamite Entertainment, announced today a comprehensive agreement that will see the return of Burroughs' original "John Carter: Warlord of Mars" to the pages of comic books, comic strips and graphic novels. The agreement allows for the world-wide publication of the John Carter universe as well as "Lord of the Jungle" and ERB's library of archival material.

The initiative comes on the heels of the reacquisition of comic book rights by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. that had been held by Walt Disney Pictures and its Marvel Entertainment subsidiary, as well as a recent legal settlement with Dynamite that cleared the way for Dynamite to introduce key characters and plot elements from the John Carter back story that were, until now, absent from recent comic book interpretations. More>>

Dynamite Will Relaunch John Carter and Tarzan Comics With Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.
The Burroughs estate and Dynamite settle their lawsuit, 
paving the way for new line of Warlord of Mars and Lord of the Jungle comics. CraveOnline.com ~ May 20th, 2014 
In 2012, during the runup to the John Carter movie released by Disney, Dynamite was sued by the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs 
over their Warlord of Mars and Lord of the Jungle comics that featured some of Burroughs’ most famous creations: John Carter, Dejah Thoris and Tarzan.
 Dynamite's counter-argument was that the Burroughs characters had fallen into public domain. 

Two years later, Dynamite and Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. have settled the lawsuit and both parties will be teaming up for a new line of Burroughs inspired comics. 
As part of the comprehensive publishing deal, Dynamite will now be able to access the Burroughs stories that were not in the public domain 
and use John Carter and Dejah Thoris in the titles of their new series. 
It’s not clear if Lord of the Jungle will be rebranded as Tarzan, but it will be a part of the relaunch.

Dynamite also picked up the rights to reprint earlier John Carter comics,
including a John Carter comic strip from the early '40s that was written by Burroughs' son, John Coleman Burroughs. 

In a brief statement, Dynamite CEO Nick Barrucci said 
"I can’t express how happy and excited everyone at Dynamite is to be working hand in hand with everyone at ERB, Inc."

Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. and Dynamite Entertainment Join Forces
to Relaunch Original "John Carter: Warlord of Mars"
DigitalJournal.com ~ May 20, 2014

• Gore Verbinski, Jerry Bruckheimer, Armie Hammer, and Johnny Depp highly criticized the American critics for their reviews on The Lone Ranger (2013), which they claim that they have criticized the film by its budget, production issues, and not on the film itself, and that they posted their "reviews" 7-8 months before the film was even released. It was also the similar manner of speaking when compared to John Carter (2012), when critics criticized the film by its similar problems, but not the film itself. Armie Hammer shared a very interesting point on the matter, "If you go back and read the negative reviews, most of them aren't about the content of the movie, but more what's behind it. It's got to the point with American critics where if you're not as smart as Plato, your stupid. That seems like a sad way to live your life. "While we were making it we knew people were gunning for it. I think it was the popular thing when the movie hit rocky terrain they jumped on the bandwagon to try and bash it. They tried to do the same thing with to World War Z (2013), it didn't work, the movie was successful. Instead they decided to slit the jugular of our movie."
• In an interview, Johnny Depp thanked his stunt horse, Scout, for saving his life after a violent fall during filming. After Scout dragged Depp 25 feet, Scout jumped over him to avoid stepping on him. A clip of the fall shows the horse clearly jumping over Depp, and detaching him from the saddle. Depp suffered only minor bruises and scrapes, but says it could have been a lot worse if the horse had stepped on him.
• The Lone Ranger comments that it has been nine years since he last fired his gun. The movie was shot in 2012, 9 years since The Lone Ranger (2003)'s immediate previous TV appearance.
• Tonto means "fool" in Spanish. In Spanish versions of this film, Tonto is renamed Toro, which means "bull".
• The first film to feature both Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter that is not directed by Tim Burton.
• As an homage to John Ford, the scene that introduces John Reid features passengers singing "Shall We Gather At The River". It was Ford's favorite hymn, included in at least five of his movies.
• During the opening sequence of the bank robbery, the music in the background is the Overture of William Tell, by Gioachino Rossini, which is later played extensively in the film's climax. This was the musical cue used in the original radio show and later films, particularly for intense sequences, and it became so popular that most people know it only as the "Lone Ranger" theme.
• The Wild West sideshow where young Will meets the elderly Tonto is called "The Thrilling Days of Yesteryear." The phrase was part of the opening narration of the original Lone Ranger radio program, where listeners were invited to "return with us to the thrilling days of yesteryear."
• Johnny Depp's makeup and costume were inspired by artist Kirby Sattler's painting "I am Crow".
• The original Lone Ranger radio serials led to a spin-off radio serial, The Green Hornet. The title character's alter ego, Britt Reid, was John Reid's great nephew. Tom Wilkinson appeared in the remake of The Green Hornet (2011).
• Near the film's climax, crates of explosives bearing the Giant Powder Company of San Francisco logo are visible. This was the United States' first licensed manufacturer of dynamite.
• This is the first version of "The Lone Ranger" in any medium in which the actor playing Tonto receives top billing.
• Though set in Colby, Texas, the film includes obvious shots of Monument Valley, Utah, a favorite filming location for American director John Ford. According to Wikipedia, "Ford's evocative use of the territory for his Westerns has defined the images of the American West so powerfully that Orson Welles once said that other film-makers refused to shoot in the region out of fears of plagiarism."
• The "frame story" where young Will meets the old Tonto, takes place in 1933, year of the first Lone Ranger radio broadcast.
• The fourth Disney film to receive a PG-13 rating, under the Disney banner, in the United States. The previous films were Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) (not counting its sequels), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010), and John Carter (2012).
• The musical cue in the shot of Red sitting under the painting of a ballerina is the Swan Theme from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.
• This is not the first time Johnny Depp has played a Native American. He played Rafael, a Native American, in his directorial debut The Brave (1997), which due to bad reviews at Cannes was never released in the USA.
• The toy train is "HO" scale which came out in the 1950s.
• Early in the film, one of the Texas Rangers refers to "Redleggers." They were anti-slavery advocates that later became a Union cavalry unit (from their uniform, which substituted red ribbons on their blue pants instead of the Yellow stripes of the US Army Cavalry. This is shown clearly in The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) in particular. They fought primarily against the pro-slavery 'border ruffians.' This group also was called Jayhawkers (the Jayhawk became the mascot for the University of Kansas). Texas was principally southern and joined the Confederacy.
• The fairground organ music during the opening 1933 San Francisco scene is taken from a recording made on the Wurlitzer theater pipe organ of the Blackpool Tower Ballroom, United Kingdom.
• The book that John Reid calls his "bible" is "Two Treatises on Government" by John Locke, a 17th-century English social scientist.
• Jessica Chastain and Abbie Cornish were considered for the role of Rebecca Reid, but lost to Ruth Wilson.
• The first film cinematographer Bojan Bazelli has shot with anamorphic lenses since Body Snatchers (1993).
• The film was originally supposed to have a plot focusing more on supernatural elements and Native American mysticism. This mainly would've taken the form of werewolves, which would've explained the silver bullets. However, this draft was supposedly part of the initial $250 million proposal that Disney quickly cancelled after John Carter underperformed. When the project was revamped to meet Disney's approval, it came more in line with the current script.
• This is the first version of The Lone Ranger to be released in IMAX, as well as the first to receive a PG-13 rating.
• Promontory Summit was officially completed May 10, 1869. Music played in the movie ceremony was John Phillip Sousa who started writing 1886.
• Andrea Riseborough and Sarah Gadon auditioned for a role.
• During the opening train scene, Johnny Reid (Arnie Hammer) says as he is attempting to become free from the chains, "That's reinforced Bethlehem Steel." The steel company he names was founded in 1857 named "Saucona Iron Company" was first organized by Augustus Wolle. On May 1, 1861, the company's title was changed again, this time to the Bethlehem Iron Company. In 1899, the company assumed the name Bethlehem Steel Company. Bethlehem Steel built many products used in the the US infrastructure and creating many war time products as well.
• Despite being one of the biggest box office disasters of 2013, Jerry Bruckheimer believes that The Lone Ranger (2013) will be, in years to come, rediscovered as a masterpiece, just like with films like The Wizard of Oz (1939), Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Sleeping Beauty (1959), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), The Shining (1980), Blade Runner (1982), A Christmas Story (1983), Flashdance (1983), and John Carter (2012) before. As he said in an interview with Vulture Magazine, "It reminds me of a critic who called 'Flashdance' a 'toxic dump.'" "Ten years later [the critic] said, 'This is really a good movie. I missed it.' I think ['Lone Ranger'] is going to be looked back on as a brave, wonderful film. I've been though this a lot with journalists. We made a movie years ago called "Flashdance" and I remember one journalist just giving us the worst review ever. Then, about five years later, we get this kind of love letter - that he totally "missed" it. That he loved the movie. And it's kind of the same with you that, any time it's on, you have to watch it. It happens, you know."

Tarzan 3D (2014 PG)
Me Tarzan, you badly let down by this hokey animated movie
The Cornishman ~ May 08, 2014

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SINCE his debut on the pages of a 1912 magazine, Edgar Rice Burroughs' fictional ape man has swung into the affections of successive generations thanks to reimaginings on the small and big screens. Former Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller famously portrayed the heroic king of the jungle during the 1930s and 1940s flanked by his plucky chimpanzee sidekick Cheeta. And most recently, Disney immortalised literary myth as an animation feature, a short-lived Broadway musical, spin-off TV series and video games.

Now it falls to German filmmaker Reinhard Klooss to put a distinctly modern spin on Burroughs' source text. Don't be misled by the colourful visuals of this computer-animated adventure and early scenes of comical monkey business. This adaptation isn't a cutesy caper aimed predominantly at children. Tragedy stalks every frame and a couple of sequences, which result in the demise of pivotal characters, could be too scary for the very young.

John Greystoke (voiced by Mark Deklin) ventures deep into the jungle with his wife Alice (Jaime Ray Newman) and their young son to search for the impact site of an ancient meteorite, which is rumoured to possess immense power. By chance, as the Greystokes leave the jungle in their helicopter, they stumble upon the meteorite but magnetic interference propels the craft into the mountainside, killing everyone on board except the young Greystoke heir. The child is rescued and raised by apes and is rechristened Tarzan.

As an adult, Tarzan (now voiced by Kellan Lutz) encounters humans once again when beautiful environmentalist Jane Porter (Spencer Locke) arrives in the jungle with William Clayton (Trevor St John), the Machiavellian new CEO of Greystoke Energies. He also seeks the elusive meteorite and its limitless power and hopes that Jane's father Jim (Les Bubb) will help him.

Tarzan is a slick yet unsatisfying reworking that struggles to marry the legend with a perplexing subtext about mankind's unsustainable depletion of the Earth's resources. Lutz beats his chest on cue to deliver his hero's iconic cry and stilted dialogue including, "Me Tarzan, you Jane". Locke essays a spunky heroine but she's poorly served by the flimsy script while St John's pantomime villain encourages the audience to hiss and boo his every underhand move.

The introduction of the mysterious meteorite to the jungle is an unwelcome distraction that draws parallels with the extraterrestrial mumbo jumbo in the fourth Indiana Jones film. An unhappy marriage of something old, something new – that leaves us feeling blue.

West Carolina Reporter ~ March 6, 2014
Western Carolina University’s original production of a radio re-creation of “Tarzan of the Apes” has been recognized with one of the top awards in the Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts. The show, which was presented Feb. 26, 2013, in WCU’s John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center, is the winner of the best of competition award in the long-form faculty audio production category.

Judges said in their comments that the piece was entertaining and engaging, and created “grand suspense” through the use of “spirited narration, musical crescendos and decrescendos, effectively placed sound effects, and engaging dialogue.” “The judges were impressed with the overall audio quality featured on the production as well as the staging of the production,” said John McGuire, chair of the festival’s faculty audio category. “These types of audio plays are rarely heard on the radio today.”

Don Connelly, head of WCU’s Department of Communication, wrote and produced “Tarzan of the Apes” and Bruce Frazier, the Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Professor of Commercial and Electronic Music, wrote the original music score for the show. Both men will be honored at the association’s national convention April 6 in Las Vegas. Last year, the two were honored with the festival’s King Family Foundation Award for WCU’s 2012 production of “Dracula,” which Connelly wrote and produced, and for which Frazier composed the original music score.

Both are part of a series of “academic-based entertainment” radio re-creation projects that have garnered six national awards in five years. In addition, one of the show’s recordings was made available last year to schools and universities for academic purposes. Connelly started working on “Tarzan of the Apes” in February 2012. That’s when he approached Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. with the idea for a new 60-minute radio show based on the 1932 radio serials written by “Tarzan” author Edgar Rice Burroughs. The radio re-creation group received permission to start on the project from Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. in August and Connelly immediately went to work on the script. As sections of the script were completed, they were sent to Frazier to compose and score the entirely new musical underscore for the show.

“Rather than the typical tribal drums approach to music with a setting in equatorial Africa, my inspiration for the music is the awe and wonderment of the jungle whose canopy is the domain of exotic animals of the wild and the man-creature who is the focus of our story,” said Frazier. “It is a setting that is both majestic and sinister, and the music reflects this dichotomy. It is into these surroundings that Jane enters and the story is transformed into one of love and passion.”

The production represented a collaboration involving several academic areas. In addition to students and faculty from programs in communication and music, the School of Stage and Screen created costumes and presented dance interpretation. The Department of English presented a paper poster session in the theater lobby and content for the commemorative program. Steve Carlisle, associate dean of the Honors College who is now retired, directed the show, and Honors College students did historical research and provided other assistance. “To me, this show really represents what is so great about Western Carolina, and that is the chance for students to work across departments and colleges in their area of interest and get a quality educational experience,” said Connelly.

Community members, students, faculty, staff, and professional actors and musicians all volunteered their time to participate in the radio re-creation, which also featured a live orchestra of student and faculty musicians from the School of Music and members of the Asheville Symphony. 

Funding for “Tarzan of the Apes” came from the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Fine and Performing Arts, the Department of Communication, School of Music, School of Stage and Screen, and the Carol Grotnes Belk Endowment. The project also received support from the Office of Undergraduate Studies. Proceeds from the event were used to fund scholarships in participating academic departments. In the last five years, the group has raised nearly $25,000 for student scholarships.

This year, the group will present “Echoes of the Cotton Club,” on Thursday, April 24. Tickets are on sale now at the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center box office.