I wasn’t positive that I’d discuss JOHN CARTER OF MARS here on AITH, but after much debate I came to a “why the f*ck not?!” (As I’ll often do.) The project has got some huge potential – it will be the first live-action film from director Andrew Stanton, the two-time Oscar winning helmer of FINDING NEMO and WALL-E, two movies that I’m not at all ashamed to admit are truly wonderful pieces of cinema in my eyes. Legendary author Edgar Rice Burroughs created the tale and went on to write eleven books in the series. (If the name doesn’t ring a bell, Burroughs also created TARZAN and THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT.)
I wasn’t sure how far along this flick was, but apparently it’s not just sitting around collecting dust. Michael Chabon – Pulitzer Prize-winning author of fan favorite “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay” – has boarded the project to rewrite the screenplay, according to his official site. While a novelist most of the time, Chabon has tried his hand at screenwriting in the past, contributing to the SPIDER-MAN 2 screenplay. Apparently the man is a big-time comic geek.
JOHN CARTER OF MARS tells the story of an ass-kicking Confederate soldier who is transported to Mars in the 1860s and subsequently thrust into the Red Planet’s own civil war. Naturally, he gets it on with a hot Alien babe and engages in intense Martian fisticuffs. And who can blame him?!
The film is tentatively scheduled to come out in 2012. I’ve already cleared my entire schedule.
SPIDER-MAN 2’s Kirsten Dunst, not being annoying for once