John Carter of Mars

I recently read the John Carter stories and I was wondering how much of a fan base they had considering that they're about to be made into a movie. John carter is a great character, but I'll be interested to see how close they stay to the original storys and how faithful they stay to the Mars described in the books. Given thier scope I wonder if its possible to make the movie look great, but still stay within a reasonable budget.

 

I've never read them but I've been told that I should. Oh wait, I may have read one of them. thought he was sort of arrogant if I remember correctly.

 

He certainly had a lot of selfconfidence, and he does go on quite a bit about his combat skills. But given the body counts he racks up I guess his arrogance is justified.

 

I've seen the books and am familiar enough with the main characters, setting, and synopsis. I'm for it in one way and on the other, I'm not really enthused. I'm for it because this movie would have to show a world that is not like earth, so the opportunity to feature unearthlike landscapes,e.g., flora and fauna. I'm not for it, for these few reasons: the barsoomians(?) even though they're green, have six arms, I keep referring to the 'alien'. And I'm kinda not feelin' the 'helpless' female syndrome and lone male rescuer. This work was written in the 20s or 30s or in the early 20th century, so I REALLY don't know about the female demos they may not relate to it, and I that might be the reason why. This is a very different world and rights for women and minorities have made progressed (still a looong way to go, you hear that America?LOL) and so society has changed very drastically and for the better. I just don't know about Favreau. I suspect a lot of liberties are going to be taken and so it may be another 'based on' type of approach. Starship Troopers, for ME, was a HUGE disappointment and I never bought the dvd. And sooooooooo... I'm not too enthused about the announcement. Doesn't mean anything. What matters is can these people execute or is it another Battlefield Earth, Flash Gordon (that early 80s nonsense), Dune(the Dino de Laurentiss production, sorry everyone,NOT FEELIN' IT), get the picture? Don't get me wrong, I wish the guy lots of luck, he's gonna need it, because, I have a feeling the under 25 crowd MAY never heard of this work from Edgar R. Burroughs.

 

I think theres still a place for John Carter in these modern times. Sometimes people need to see a hero who isn't suffering some mental trauma and is just being a hero because its the right thing to do. But that said the story probably would need some updating to be viable, I remember in the books about the Martian women laying eggs, which strikes me as ludicrous. If its exciting enough people will see it. Hell if Harry Potter can make $400 million anything can.