Amph John Carter (of Mars)

From Comingsoon.net and Dark Horizons:

[image=http://www.frankbrunner.net/commissions/mars.jpg]

Pixar Planning Three Mars Pics
Source: ERBZine October 9, 2007


ERBZine reports that pre-production is heating up on Disney/Pixar's John Carter of Mars movie, based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs sci-fi series.

"The Pixar creative team spent Tuesday morning exploring the massive Edgar Rice Burroughs archives in the ERB, Inc. offices on Ventura Blvd. Pixar's Jim Morris (vp), Andrew Stanton (director), Mark Andrews (script) discussed the 'John Carter of Mars' film project with Burroughs representatives, Danton Burroughs, Sandra Galfas and Jim Sullos," says the site.

The site adds, "All six members at the meeting expressed a deep commitment to the project, acknowledging that they had been inspired by Burroughs' creations from a very early age. This is evidenced in the excitement held for the John Carter property and the plans for a film trilogy faithful to the Burroughs books."

The projected release year for the first film is 2012.

The film begins with a Civil War veteran whose retreat into a cave to avoid capture by Apache Indians takes an otherworldly turn as he's transported via time portal to the planet of Barsoom and taken prisoner by 12-foot-tall green men.

Burroughs wrote 11 volumes of Carter's adventures and Disney is hoping the film will launch a franchise.

 

So, Pixar wants to do a series of animated sc-fi epics? Nice.

EDIT:According to Counting downn.com Kerry Conran is supposed to direct. Good choice IMO.

 

Kerry Conran has been off the project. After him it went to Jon Favreau, who is also off now.

These films will be part live action according to Dark Horizons. Which is interesting for Pixar.

 

Comingsoon states that Andrew Stanton is slated to direct.

Well since Disney and Pixar have merged I would assume that they would tap into Disney's resources for the live action element.

 

That's intresting. The CGI segments should be topnotch though, so this should be an interesting project.

 

Never read it; is it any good?

 

If Disney/Pixar is considering a trilogy they must really believe in the potential of these stories. I've never read the "John Carter" books but I understand they were among the earliest science-fiction stories and very influential in their day.

Here's an excerpt from the Wiki entry:
The tales seem somewhat dated today, but they showed great innovation for the time of writing, and the exciting stories caught the interest of many readers, helping to inspire serious interest in Mars and in space exploration.

It would be ironic if an updated Disney/Pixar version helped to further public interest in space exploration, but that's probably just wishful thinking. In any case, we can at least expect another innovative and entertaining project from Pixar.

 

No, but I like Pixar and this sounds really inventive, maybe even innovative depending on what they do with it.

 

To judge by the summaries on the net, a lot of updating will be necessary.

 

I read one John Carter of Mars book and I couldn't stand him. He was egotistical, arrogant and I spent most of the book wanting to knock him off his pedestal. Still it could be good as a pixar story.

 

The John Carter books were never as good as the Tarzan books by Burroughs. I wish someone would do a faithful relaunch of the Tarzan franchise; none of the films to this point have come anywhere close to really capturing the balls the walls pulp spirit of those books.

The Mars books, I read . . . two or three of. Never really hooked me.

 

I assume they will be animated. Might be a very good trilogy with Pixar involved.

 

All I can ever think of when I hear about this series is ER

-sj loves kevin spacey

 

Since I have never watched ER, tell me why...?

 

Rumours that Disney are planning a long series.

 

So, it's a quarter billion dollar fiasco BEFORE it's released. Honestly, these kinds of hysterical stories (which journalists
love to write) sure do have the subtext of Hollywood politics...as in a bunch of Disney's competitors are praying it's a
fiasco and are whispering lots of negative things into a reporter's ears.

Mind you, it may well BE a diaster. But let's see, Jaws was a fiasco, Star Wars was a disaster, Titanic was disaster, please!
It's the movie biz. Anything can happen. And the public is very fickle. The fact that a film has a troubled production
period doesn't mean that much. The public doesn't care about that. Only the public has the final vote. When will the media learn that?

 

You cant judge from trailers, i know this, but it looks ridicuosly miscast. I love these stories too.

 

The marketing's lackluster and the - Hmm, I'm going with abomination - abomination of a title (Random people on the street are going to think this is some kind of niche indie drama) is going to result in some really heavy losses barring a word of mouth miracle. $250 million is literally a Waterworld if you adjust for inflation.

 

While I liked Finding Nemo quite a lot, I'm of the camp who think WALL·E's Pixar's weakest, most obnoxious effort to date, and the trailers really haven't sold me on John Carter. I just hope it does well because I want to hear Michael Giacchino's scores for the sequels.

 

John Carter of Mars is classic sci fi pulp from the dawn of sci fi pulp. I couldn't believe it when Disney reduced the title to "John Carter." It's like trying to market "Prince of Persia" with a poster showing only Jake Gyllenhall and a release date. Oh, wait.

But in any case Disney has never understood the first thing about science fiction. This is just another "Black Hole" for a new generation of moviegoers to stay away from en masse. There's no level of spending on state-of-the-art effects that can't be utterly sabotaged by a strategically-placed googly-eyed robot. You just know that John Carter is crawling with googly-eyed robots even if they are hidden from view in the trailers.

 

. . .and reducing the title to Prince.

 

Technically it'd be like reducing the title to Dastan.