Djimon Hounsou has signed on to director David Yates' Tarzan.

Deadline reports the Guardians of the Galaxy and Blood Diamond actor will play Chief Mbonga in Warner Bros.' live-action 3D adventure. He joins a cast that already includes Alexander Skarsgard and Margot Robbie.

Warner Bros. has been trying to get a new Tarzan film off the ground for a few years, with Yates' version announced in 2012. The project hit the skids in 2013 due to budgetary concerns, but earlier this year, the studio gave the project a July 1, 2016 release date.

Edgar Rice Burroughs first published Tarzan of the Apes in 1912 in magazine form and then in 1914 as a book. So successful was the tale of a jungle-raised Brit that it spawned 25 sequels by Burroughs and numerous adaptations in the worlds of film, television, radio, comics and even stage.