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VRP backs Tarzan and King Arthur

Village Roadshow Pictures is raising $US400 million to fund its upcoming slate of co-productions including Tarzan and King Arthur.

Tarzan stars Alexander Skarsgård, Margot Robbie, Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz and is directed by David Yates, who made the last four Harry Potter films.

Filmed at Leavesden Studio near London and scripted by Stuart Beattie and Stephen Sommers, the plot follows Skarsgård’s Tarzan, who leaves  the jungles of Africa for a gentrified life as John Clayton III, Lord Greystoke, with his wife Jane (Robbie).

When he is invited back to the Congo to serve as a trade emissary of Parliament, he becomes a pawn in a deadly game of greed and revenge, masterminded by Belgian Captain Leon Rom (Waltz).

Now shooting, Guy Ritchie’s Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur stars Charlie Hunnam as the legendary character who pulled the sword from the stone, Annabelle Wallis as Maid Maggie, plus Jude Law, Djimon Hounsou and Eric Bana.

Bloomberg reported the VRP fund-raising via investment banker Moelis & Co. Village Roadshow Ltd owns 47.12% of VRP, which made a motza from co-producing with Warner Bros. American Sniper, which cost less than $US60 million and has amassed $US517 million at cinemas worldwide.

But the two studios will take a substantial loss on the Wachowski siblings' Jupiter Ascending, which has earned $171 million, less than its production budget which Box Office Mojo estimates at $176 million.

VRP’s upcoming line-up includes the WB co-pros Mad Max: Fury Road, which opens here on May 14, the Queensland-shot San Andreas and Ron Howard’s In the Heart of the Sea.  With Sony Pictures VRP is co-producing Grimsby (which stars Sacha Baron Cohen), Goosebumps (Jack Black, Amy Ryan) and Concussion ( Will Smith).