He may be King of the Apes, but Tarzan won’t have any primate pals on the set of his next big screen adventure — that is, if Anjelica Huston has anything to say about it.
The Oscar winner and PETA spokewoman has penned an open letter to director Stephen Sommers (The Mummy), asking him to use CG animals instead of live apes in his upcoming Tarzan reboot, currently in development at Warner Bros.
Huston says the animals are emotionally and physically abused during their careers, then shipped off to roadside zoos when they become too old to handle. (At least one Tarzan alum escaped that fate: Cheeta, the septagenerian sidekick of movies like Tarzan and his Mate (1934), was happily chilling out in Palm Springs when EW’s Josh Rottenberg checked in with him last year.)
“Critics lauded King Kong in particular for the emotional depth that the giant ape displayed — without any real apes suffering in the process,” writes Huston. “Can I please hear that you similarly plan to use only creative alternatives to great apes in Tarzan?“
What do you think, PopWatchers? Is it time for Hollywood to ditch real apes, or are you giving thumbs-down to Hollywood’s ape crusader?
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I give thumbs up to Anjelica! With the technology that exists today there is just no reason to force the animals to perform.
I always had a lot of respect for Anjelica Huston as an actress, and I’m happy to learn that she is also a caring human being with a conscience. Of course Hollywood should “ditch real apes.” I think the idea nowadays sounds preposterous.
IIRC the last big-budget live-action Tarzan movie Greystoke used Rick Baker’s makeup effects for the primates?
There is no need to use real apes, instead. Can’t they use CGI instead?
The studios have been making Tarzan movies (among others) for 80 years using real apes. You hippies need to get over it!
how about they use humans in ape costumes
She is absolutely right. I learned recently that the monkeys you see in movies/tv are all young and then they quickly are put out to ‘retirement’ (which most times leads to them living in dismal conditions) once they become adults and are difficult to manage. Also, when they are ‘acting’, these youngsters have to be bullied into reacting the right way for the cameras. What we put them through to give us a few moments of on the screen just isn’t worth the abuse.
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I mean, if they have the cash to make fake apes on computer, I guess why not.
Actors in suits?! WTF! I guess eveyone’s forgotten about “Congo”. Though “King Kong” looked okay, there was never a moment in the film when I could take his fakea** seriously. The apes in “Greystoke”looked cool; then again I was in middleschool.
I’m glad Ms. Huston is providing a voice for animals without one. I don’t believe animals exist to entertain us; they certainly don’t perform tricks naturally. She’s right to say there’s no need to subject an animal to unnatural conditions just to make a movie. Peter Jackson’s King Kong used Andy Serkis and CG effects to create the incredible “animal” we saw on screen.
Hey, good plan. But why stop there? Let’s have all animals in all TV and movies be CG so that none of them have to perform (or eventually be eaten) since to concentrate only on primates smacks of specism (“Won’t anyone just think of the rodent children!!”). Then we can have all human actors computerized also so they don’t have to work such long miserable hours. And then…oh right, I almost forgot that I thought this was a typical PETAheaded plan to begin with…
This is absolutely the right thing to do. Apes are abused in absolutley horrific ways by the entertaiment industry. They are beaten into learning to perform. There is no excuse for this. An animals capacity for fear, pain and suffering is not one bit different from a humans.
Oh, and Charles, you’re a total jackass and a moron.
I have worked at a roadside zoo with former Hollywood chimps, and I absolutely agree with Anjelica. These poor animals are abused horrifically, and by the time we get them, there is nothing we can do to make them happy. They face 50 long years of being trapped in an iron cage with nothing to do- they’re emotionally disturbed enough to destroy all the toys we give them- and there is nothing anybody can do to improve their quality of life.
These animals are almost as smart as humans are, people. We have to look after them! The horrific cruelty faced by performing apes is nothing like performing dogs or horses- this is not a slippery slope. Apes belong in the wild and in well-funded zoos with good habitats.
Is “Tarzan” really so important that highly intelligent animals (capable of speaking sign language) need to suffer for it?
Of course she is right, to use a live chimp would be taking a step back to the dark ages of using live primates in films.
According to PeTA we shouldn’t own any animals at all. Some of us actually believe in realism and just because you can make a cg animal doesn’t mean you should. USE REAL APES AND LET PETA GET OVER IT. PeTA is already the most inhumane organization out there, destroying 93% of the animals brought to them for rescue.
While other primates are just as expressive as we are…acting isn’t exactly one of their strong suits.
While I don’t support PETA or many of their extremist and hypocritical views, I completely agree.
There’s absolutely no reason to put the actors and animals through all the stress of “trained” animals when CG has done such a fantastic job.
This is of course provided they actually have a GOOD CG team like the one used for King Kong.
Not, say…the ones who animated the live characters in Spiderman. -.-’
Lucas – your inhumanity is showing. You might want to check that. It’s not just PETA asking for animals to not be used in movies. It’s anyone with any sort of empathy for animals. Of course, only those with absolutely no sense of reason or feeling would say “hey, using live animals in grueling conditions is A-OK in my book!” Actors themselves often complain about filming conditions – long hours, bad weather, etc etc. Animals have no voice with which to complain. I am no fan of PETA because I don’t believe in their extremist views but I do believe that animals should not be used in film if it can be helped.
Wow, snappy and clever retort, Brad. But OK, I could certainly live with CG apes over real ones, for easier production if nothing else. Let’s face it, CG technology has become amazingly real. Needless cruelty to animals of any kind is wrong. But my major gripe is with PETA and it’s overkill (pun intended)approach to wildlife. Such as their latest campaign to have all fish referred to as “Sea Kitten’s” so that we won’t be so cruel as to actually eat them. And the stars (not Ms. Huston) who jump on the hypocritical bandwagon as a fad or cynical career move. So how’s this, Up with apes, down with phonies! Everyone happy?
I have yet to see any CGI that comes close to the real thing, Kong included. Why can’t you have real animals with stricter regulations on the set?
Only the worst of the worst animal trainers use methods that make it inhumane. Most trainers use positive reinforcement and have generally happy animals. Ask the original Cheetah who is still going strong in his 70s if being in film hurt his lifespan.
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