Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, WALL•E) is gearing up for his live-action debut with John Carter of Mars, an adaptation of A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The novel began its serialization in 1912 and spawned eight other novels and several shorter tales over the following thirty years. A Civil War veteran of the Confederate side, John Carter finds himself taking refuge in a cave after an Indian attack when he is mysteriously transported to Mars. Due to the lower gravity, Carter has superhuman strength on the planet, which helps win him favor when he stumbles across the Green Martians, a race of four-armed warriors twice the height of humans. When these people capture Dejah Thoris, princess of the humanlike Red Martians, Carter plots to save her and her people from their oppressors and winning her love along the way. If you haven’t figured it out, the series is a classic example of sci-fi/fantasy pulp fiction. It’s a fast paced read and could prove to be a really cool film, although I think it’ll be a challenge to do right with tall, four-armed martians in terms of both the dramatic scenes and the numerous duels and battles.
Now to the casting. Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins have been given the roles of John Carter and Dejah Thoris, respectively. They both recently appeared in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but I won’t hold that against them. Thomas Haden Church also said that he may be taking a role in the film, although no word on what character that might be (h/t ComingSoon).
Andrew Stanton co-wrote the screenplay with Mark Andrews. Andrews has been on the story department for all of Brad Bird’s films and co-wrote/co-directed the Pixar short One Man Band with Andrew Jimenez. He’s also worked with Genndy Tartakovsky on Samurai Jack and Star Wars: The Clone Wars along with doing everything on his comic Tales of Colossus, a cool fantasy tale about a Crusader magically sealed into an advanced suit of armor. I trust these two to do well by the source material and work out the couple problems that stem from being a work of the early 20th century mentality regarding race. After Stanton and Andrews did their part, Michael Chabon came in for revisions, but I’m vaguely ashamed to admit I have no experience with his work.
It seems John Carter of Mars is being prepared to begin production towards the end of the year in Utah. There’s been no mention of a release window but holiday 2010 would obviously be the absolute earliest it could arrive, with a 2011 date most likely. Disney’s talked about this having the potential to be another big series for them like Pirates of the Caribbean, so expect it to get a significant push.
