Stephen Sommers to Direct Tarzan

Stephen Sommers (The Mummy) is in negotiations to direct a big screen version of Tarzan for Warner Bros. and producer Jerry Weintraub, reports Variety. 

Sommers will also co-write the Tarzan script with Stuart Beattie. Sommers directed the recently wrapped G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra for Paramount, with Beattie penning the final draft of the screenplay. 

Warner Bros. and Weintraub have been developing Tarzan since 2003, when John August was hired to pen a new take on the Edgar Rice Burroughs-created character. Two years ago, the studio was negotiating with Guillermo del Toro to direct. 

Burroughs' "Tarzan of the Apes" was written in 1912.