Disney has given John Carter of Mars a release window of summer 2012. The film marks the live-action debut for director Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, WALL-E). Stanton co-wrote the script with Mark Andrews while Michael Chabon did rewrites. The current cast includes Taylor Kitsch as John Carter, Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris, Willem Dafoe as Tars Tarkas, Samantha Morton as Sola, Dominic West as Sab Than and Polly Walker as Sarkoja. Filming is projected to begin early next year, giving the production a ton of time to produce and perfect the immense amount of CG and special effects required to bring the creatures of Mars to life. Thanks to all the talent involved and generally enjoying the novel, this is definitely one of the blockbusters I’m excited for in the next couple years.
John Carter of Mars is 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. It’s a classic example of sci-fi/fantasy pulp literature.
