Starring: Willem Dafoe, Mark Strong, Lynn Collins, Taylor Kitsch,
Ciarán Hinds, Bryan Cranston, Dominic West Directed by: Andrew Stanton
U.S.
Opening Date: June 8, 2012
THEY SAY
Wolverine stars Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins
will meet again in John Carter of Mars, the first full-length live
action motion picture by Pixar’s Andrew Stanton (Wall-E).
Taylor Kitsch, who portrayed Gambit in
Wolverine, will play the title
character, a veteran of the American Civil War. Noticeably traumatized by
his war experiences, John Carter finds himself mysteriously transported to
Mars where his role with regards to the planet’s dying population obliges
him to rediscover his humanity. (The movie will be based on a 1912 novel
by Edgar Rice Burroughs, better known as the creator of Tarzan.)
Lynn Collins will portray the Princess of Mars, Dejah
Thoris. Produced by Disney, with a screenplay Andrew Stanton and Mark
Andrews, the film is slated to begin shooting next January.
WE SAY
This project has been bouncing around a while now in
Hollywood before landing up at Pixar. It began life as A Princess of
Mars (named after the first book in the series), a $100 million Robert
Rodriguez project at Paramount. (Interestingly Rodriguez hired famous
fantasy painter Frank Frazetta to do some designs for the flick.) Then it
moved on to Kerry Conran, who had just finished
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
(2004). In 2005, Conran left and was replaced by Jon Favreau, the
Zathura and Iron Man director.
Paramount however got cold feet and sold the rights to Pixar.
If all goes according to plan it will be Pixar’s
second live-action movie. Yup, Pixar is venturing into the scary waters of
live action film-making. We will see how it all turns out. Their first
such film will be Brad (The Incredibles,
Ratatouille) Bird’s 1906, a crime drama set in that year on
the eve of the huge fire that practically destroyed San Francisco.
Andrew Stanton, fresh from his
WALL-E triumph, will direct
John Carter of Mars. In January 2009 Stanton told Sci-Fi Wire that live-action
is the the "only way" to go: "I mean, there are so many creatures and
characters that half of it's going to be CG whether you want it to be [or
not], just to realize some of these images that are in the book. But it
will feel real. The whole thing will feel very, very believable."
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John
Carter Of Mars (2012)
