With the Peter Yates Tarzan film in post production I though now would be a good time to reflect on the vastly influential pulp adventure author Edgar Rice Burroughs
I am an Edgar Rice Burroughs fan, I've read dozens of his books and I love his high adventure style and boundless imagination. I will admit though that attempts to translate these to film have been somewhat disapointing:
Tarzan has had roughly 52 movies ranging in quality from pretty good to 'Oh my God the goggles they do nothing!'
'The Land that Time Forgot' series has had 3 movies (one by the Asylum again).
John Carter of Mars has had 2 movies; the Disney one that I liked and an asylum one that I haven't got around to watching yet.
The Pellucidar books have had 1 movie.
There have also been 5 movies based on miscellaneous Edgar Rice Burroughs novels.
This list is pretty pathetic to say the least. John Carter of Mars languished in development hell for so long that all of it's original ideas made their way to film in the hands of other filmmakers and dozens of Burroughs other works haven't even been glanced at.
And Burroughs influence on modern adventure sci-fi and fantasy cannot be overstated; He creatd both the Planetary Romance and the Sword & Planet genres, The Phantom has some very slight Tarzan influences and the Phantom was one of the first superheroes, Star Wars started as an adaptation of Flash Gordon which in turn was created when King Features Syndicate wanted to compete with Buck Rogers (another John Carter influenced creation) but couldn't get the rights to John Carter so they had to create their own character. James Cameron claimed that Avatar was heavily inspired by John Carter, And let's not even start on Adam Strange
What do you think? Is Edgar rice Burroughs an underappreciated writer on film? Are we doomed to get nothing but Tarzan movies till judgement day and the trumpets sound? Are there any other Burroughs books worth adapting? Which ones? Or have Burroughs once original ideas now become stale dooming any future adaptations to suffer the same fate as John Carter of Mars? Are there any adaptations I've missed?
Personally I'd love to see a movie series based on the Carson Napier of Venus series, maybe get Stephen Sommers to direct.
t:
I am an Edgar Rice Burroughs fan, I've read dozens of his books and I love his high adventure style and boundless imagination. I will admit though that attempts to translate these to film have been somewhat disapointing:
Tarzan has had roughly 52 movies ranging in quality from pretty good to 'Oh my God the goggles they do nothing!'
'The Land that Time Forgot' series has had 3 movies (one by the Asylum again).
John Carter of Mars has had 2 movies; the Disney one that I liked and an asylum one that I haven't got around to watching yet.
The Pellucidar books have had 1 movie.
There have also been 5 movies based on miscellaneous Edgar Rice Burroughs novels.
This list is pretty pathetic to say the least. John Carter of Mars languished in development hell for so long that all of it's original ideas made their way to film in the hands of other filmmakers and dozens of Burroughs other works haven't even been glanced at.
And Burroughs influence on modern adventure sci-fi and fantasy cannot be overstated; He creatd both the Planetary Romance and the Sword & Planet genres, The Phantom has some very slight Tarzan influences and the Phantom was one of the first superheroes, Star Wars started as an adaptation of Flash Gordon which in turn was created when King Features Syndicate wanted to compete with Buck Rogers (another John Carter influenced creation) but couldn't get the rights to John Carter so they had to create their own character. James Cameron claimed that Avatar was heavily inspired by John Carter, And let's not even start on Adam Strange
What do you think? Is Edgar rice Burroughs an underappreciated writer on film? Are we doomed to get nothing but Tarzan movies till judgement day and the trumpets sound? Are there any other Burroughs books worth adapting? Which ones? Or have Burroughs once original ideas now become stale dooming any future adaptations to suffer the same fate as John Carter of Mars? Are there any adaptations I've missed?
Personally I'd love to see a movie series based on the Carson Napier of Venus series, maybe get Stephen Sommers to direct.
