Disney has set a firm release date of June 8th, 2012 for John Carter of Mars, the adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ stories, specifically A Princess of Mars. The film marks the live-action debut of Andrew Stanton, director of Pixar’s Finding Nemo and WALL-E, though it will make heavy use of performance capture and CGI. Stanton wrote the script with Mark Andrews and Michael Chabon. Michael Giacchino (Lost, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up) will provide the score.
The date is somewhat weird since it’s just one week before Pixar’s Brave (formerly known as The Bear and the Bow). Glancing at the known release dates for that summer, a lot of the weekends are already taken by big sequels and better known licensed properties, but there are still a couple weekends in May and June yet to be staked out. I suppose the two movies have significant enough different demos to support the move, but it leaves Disney doing heavy promotion for two big films at the same time. At the same time, I don’t really care when they come out, as long as they’re great and I have faith on that count.
The original novel, A Princess of Mars, 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 among the Tharks, a tribe of Green Martians made up 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 while winning her love along the way.
The film’s quite excellent cast is made up of the following:
- Taylor Kitsch (John Carter) – Confederate veteran of the Civil War.
- Lynn Collins (Dejah Thoris) – A Red Martian princess.
- Willem Dafoe (Tars Tarkas) – High ranking warrior member of the Tharks, one of the Green Martian tribes, who ultimately allies with Carter.
- Samantha Morton (Sola) – The daughter of Tars Takas, who has an unusually soft side for her species and must hide it.
- Dominic West (Sab Than) – The prince of the Zodangans, which is a tribe of the Red Martians.
- Polly Walker (Sarkoja) – A tyrannical Green Martian who delights in having Dejah as a prisoner.
- Thomas Haden Church (Tal Hajus) – An ambitious Thark, one of the tall four-armed Martians, waiting for his chance to be ruler.
- James Purefoy (Kantos Kan) – A Red Martian captain of a floating warship.
- Mark Strong (Matai Shang) – Ruler of the Therns (descendants of the White Martians) with godlike status.
- Ciarin Hinds (Tardos Mors) – Grandfather of Dejah Thoris and leader of their tribe.
- Bryan Cranston – A fellow veteran of the Civil War accompanying John Carter at the story’s beginning.
- Daryl Sabara (Edgar Rice Burroughs) – Fictionalized nephew of John Carter.
