"Millennium Studios Hopes ‘Sheena: Queen Of The Jungle’ " Topic

…Can Replicate ‘Wonder Woman's Success.

"In what appears to be another case of slightly missing the point, Millennium Films is chasing the success of Warner Brothers' ‘Wonder Woman' by digging in the crates and going even further back. The studio is hoping to begin production on a movie based on ‘Sheena, Queen of the Jungle' next year. While DC's Amazing Amazon premiered in late 1941, Sheena predates her, having debuted in the British magazine ‘Wags' #1 in 1937 and was the first female character to go on to star in her own comic series. While she had supernatural abilities, Sheena emerged from earlier pulp novels, much like her male counterpart Tarzan, and was not exactly what we now call a "superhero."

If you're not old enough to remember, something very similar occurred after Tim Burton's 1989 ‘Batman' broke records and became an international sensation. Movie studios scrambled to cash in on the first big-budget "comic book movie" but rather than adapting other contemporary superhero properties, studios dove WAY back and released films based on ‘Dick Tracy', ‘The Shadow' and ‘The Phantom' none of which had much in the way of name recognition with young people of the early 90s. Disney adapted ‘The Rocketeer‘, but while that comic series was published in the 1980s, it was set during the 1940s and echoed the retro vibe of these other projects and suffered a similar lackluster fate at the box office…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Hollywood hosed over Dick Tracy, The Shadow & the Phantom.

The Rocketeer was good though.

There were certain parts of Sheena, the movie, that I thought were quite good.

imdb.com/title/tt0088103

Bob, they could only show those scenes on cable.

But, I fully agree "There were certain parts of Sheena" – "that I thought were quite good".

Yes, Tanya Roberts should have been excellent casting, but the brane ded script, and insane location shooting in dried-up, thorny, depressing East Africa, moving everything into the current era, were all monumental faults that doomed the movie.

It may have been made worse only by requiring Ms. Roberts to
"act." Any fool could have seen that all she had to do was be physical and be photographed by a heterosexual male who could appreciate her true… assets as a screen presence.

She was fine as far as they needed her to go in "From A View To A Kill," though that, too, was a fairly lame entry in the Bond canon.

Robert's "Sheena" was a box office disaster that pretty well ended the careers of both the leading lady AND her leading man, Ted Wass (who remembers him now?).

SO if the still brane ded gits who reach back for old titles to remake, want to avoid repeating history, they would be well advised to try to copy the success of the latest "Tarzan" in period, locale, and frankly (though she's probably TOO good to take the part) try to cast Margot Robbie in the leopard skin.

And, "Yes," I threw away good ticket money when the previous "Sheena" (which is remembered now as "Sheeeesh!") came out and am still gobsmacked at how bad the whole thing was.

Except perhaps for Ms. Roberts riding the faux Zebra bare backed.

The Zebra, not Ms. Roberts. There was nothing "faux" about her….

TVAG

VCarter,

You beat me to it! Lol

Dan

The parts she displayed in The Beastmaster were pretty easy on the eye too ;)

Tanya was sexy, but she looked dumb as a rock and lacked personality. Sheena can't just be eye candy to be successful. Margot Robbie would be perfect. She shows some intelligence and a sense of humor. And with today's special effects a dense jungle and/or a lost civilization could easily be replicated. With a decent writing team, and a competent director the film *could* sell tickets. I'd go to see it.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

The parts you all allude to were indeed memorable, but even more so when you consider that the film was rated PG. You don't usually find too much in the way of full frontal nudity in a PG movie.

I can tell you my parents were a bit surprised in front of the VCR that night…