John Carter of Mars (film)

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John Carter of Mars may also refer to John Carter of Mars (novel) and the character John Carter of Mars.

This article or section contains information about one or more scheduled or expected films. The content may change as the film's release approaches and more information becomes available.

John Carter of Mars was a proposed film adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs's eleven-volume Barsoom series. The film was to be released by Paramount Pictures and is being produced by Alphaville Productions partners Sean Daniel and Jim Jacks, who also produced The Mummy, Tombstone, and 21 other feature films. Ain't It Cool News' Harry Knowles is co-producing. No actors have yet been attached to the project.

As of October 2005, Jon Favreau is scheduled to direct the film. Robert Rodriguez and, later, Kerry Conran were once attached to direct but have moved on. The script was written by Mark Protosevich and rewritten by Ehren Kruger. Paramount has declined to renew their option on the rights as of August 2006, and it is rumored that the Walt Disney Co. is in negotiations to acquire the rights to the property for development through Pixar Animation.^[1] Even if Disney have acquired the rights for the movie, it will most likely be made be the new and still not named animation film company at Disney, where Robert Zemeckis, Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey's ImageMovers will be absorbed. A studio that will specialize in making computer animated motion pictures based on performance capture technology.

At least three attempts were made to translate this adventure series to film in the past, and all were aborted. The first attempt was to be an animated feature with Burroughs himself on board, but disagreements between the studio and the filmmakers doomed the project.

Originally this film was slated to be released under the title A Princess of Mars. However it was changed to John Carter of Mars during development. Although this title has the same name as Burroughs's final novel in the Barsoom series, the content is based on several Carter novels. If the film is successful, Paramount has made it known sequels are likely as the studio wants to make it into a franchise.

Rodriguez was originally scheduled to direct the film, and he even went so far as to hire fantasy artist Frank Frazetta as production designer. But when Rodriguez left the Directors' Guild of America (DGA) in a dispute over Sin City, the producers of John Carter of Mars let him go, citing an agreement with the DGA only to work with guild members.

As an April fools joke, Pixar blog UpcomingPixar broke the news that John Carter of Mars would be Brad Bird's live action feature length debut as director.

1 Previous attempts at a film adaptation
2 References
3 Further reading
4 External links

[edit] Previous attempts at a film adaptation

Since A Princess of Mars was first published in 1917, there have been several attempts by various parties to turn it into a motion picture.

[edit] Bob Clampett and the Burroughs family

In 1931, the first documented attempt was made by animation pioneer Bob Clampett. It was to be his first independent project since making a name for himself as an animator at Warner Bros. Clampett approached Edgar Rice Burroughs himself about making an animated version of the books Clampett adored. To the animator's pleasant surprise, Burroughs was enthusiastic about the idea of an animated film as he was eager to give his characters wider exposure. (The Mars books had won a reasonable level of success on their own, but nowhere near the author's Tarzan book series.) Burroughs' son, Jack Burroughs, recently-graduated from college, was fascinated by Clampett's unique animation style. He and the animator collaborated in creating an extensive cachet of notes, sketches, and models--that would be the film's blueprints--and a reel of test footage. All the while, Burroughs the Author sold the film rights to Metro Goldwyn Mayer, the studio that was already producing the Tarzan film series starring Johnny Weismuller.

The project was moving ahead expeditiously, until 1935. The executives at M.G.M soon clashed with Clampett and the two Burroughs men over the direction in which to take the film: the creators wanted a serious sci-fi adventure tale; the execs wanted a slapstick comedy with a swashbuckling hero. Eventually, the studio put an end to the entire project, citing it as "too expensive". Had it been created, the first in a series of short films would have debuted in 1936.

When Clampett toured colleges and universities in the late 1970s, he would screen test footage he had co-created with Jack Burroughs. The audience reaction was always ecstatic.

[edit] Ray Harryhausen

In the early 1960s, stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen, fresh off the success of The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, attempted to take command of the long-troubled project for M.G.M (which he details in his memoir, An Animated Life). Like Bob Clampett and Jack Burroughs before him, Harryhausen created an extensive array of notes, sketches and models to be used in the film. Although the animator tried for several years to get the film going, the sheer scale and expense of the project (as well as his admitted lack of enthusiasm for the book on which the film is based) forced him to leave the project. This forced the proverbial "plug" to be pulled on the project once again.

[edit] Touchstone Pictures

The project came the closest to fruition in the late 1980s when the film rights were acquired by the Touchstone Pictures division of The Walt Disney Company. To help off-set unforeseeable costs, Carolco Pictures heads Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna were brought on as producers. For the first time since Bob Clampett was let go from the project, an official director was announced in 1988: John McTiernan, fresh off the back-to-back successes of Predator and Die Hard. McTiernan hired then up-and-coming screenwriters Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott to write the screenplay, while production designer William Stout was brought on board to create the unique look of the film. Both McTiernan and Stout have gone on record^[2] as saying that Tom Cruise was in talks to play John Carter (there are long-persistent rumours that Julia Roberts was in talks to play Carter's love interest, Princess Dejah, but there is little evidence to substantiate this.)

However, the project was once again marred by its sheer scale and rising budget. Furthermore, McTiernan was unhappy with the state of cinematic special effects at the time, feeling they needed to advance to achieve the appropriate effect needed for the landscape of Barsoom. The growing budget is one of many factors that contributed to the eventual bankruptcy of Carolco Pictures.^{[citation needed]}

During the 1990s, Disney/Touchstone made several attempts to get the project up and running again, but to no avail. Sometime after, the rights expired.

[edit] Paramount Pictures

In 2002, the rights were acquired by Paramount Pictures. In 2004 it was announced that Robert Rodriguez would direct^[3] from a screenplay by Mark Protosevich. Soon after, Rodriguez' friend, webmaster, and life-long fan of the books, Harry Knowles, was named as a producer. It would have been Rodriguez largest project with a reported starting budget of $100 million. Rodriguez brought on one of his favourite painters, Frank Frazetta (whose commissioned painting have graced many covers of Edgar Rice Burroughs books, particularly the Mars) as designer ^[3].

However, later that year Rodriguez got into a dispute with the Directors Guild of America of the credits of his movie Sin City, forcing him to resign from the guild. Unfortunately, the guild has an agreement with most major studios to where only card-carrying members of the D.G.A may direct the studios' films. By resigning from the guild, Rodriguez was forced to relinquish the director's chair on what had just been re-named John Carter of Mars.

Later that year, Kerry Conran, director of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, was named as the new director. In 2005, Conran left the project for reasons that are unclear. Jon Favreau was then named as the new director. However it is now said to be helmed by Brad Bird of Pixar fame.

Paramount has decided not to renew their option on the work after deciding to make a new Star Trek film instead. ^[4]