‘John Carter’ The New Sci-Fi Disney/Pixar Movie – What’s Coming

Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875 – 1950) is the creator and author of ‘John Carter of Mars’ (1936) and he is also the author and creator of Tarzan. His highly creative and imaginative movie ‘John Carter’ is a movie that could only have been properly made when the technology caught up to the imagination of the original story. By the looks of the first trailers out this has been magnificently done. Burroughs wrote 91 novels over his lifetime and did not start writing until he was 35.

Disney/Pixar has taken a big step forward with John Carter, the new sci-fi high action adventure movie about to hit theatres March 9th, 2012. This is a big divergence for Disney from the usual syrupy fare that we typically think of from Disney lately. When Walt brought his original characters to the screen they had some humor, grit and vulnerability. They could be rude, thoughtless and blood thirsty. They dealt with situations that seemed real. Cutting out Snow White’s heart and putting it in a box was chilling to say the least. This all got mellowed down into a world of one-dimensional characters and Disney playgrounds. Cartoons and kiddy movies are nice but Disney is a big enough company to take some chances on more adventurous material.

The novels, settings and characters created by Edgar Rice Burroughs have been inspirational to many filmmakers and writers including James Cameron’s Avatar. His characters are heroic and struggle with real collisions between worlds both primitive and intergalactic.

Andrew Stanton is directing the movie John Carter and worked with Michael Chabon on the screenplay. A number of directors had been approached to consider this project including Guillmero del Torro. The cast includes Taylor Kitsch as John Carter, Lynn Collins (Dejah Thoris); Willem Dafoe (Tars Tarkas), Mark Strong (Matai Shang), Dominic West (Sab Than) and Thomas Hayden Church (Tal Hajus). The movie is heavily dependent on art, visual & special effects, animation, wardrobe and makeup departments. The trailers show a fascinating world created with a Star Wars theme of characters that is totally in line with the imaginative world created by Edgar Rice Burroughs years ago.

Follow everything about this movie and go one further – check out Burroughs novels.

http://www.johncarterofmars.ca/