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daniel radcliffe
  Andrew Stanton talks to the media during the John Carter press visit (Photo by Jessica Lifland, Courtesy of Disney)

In 2012, "John Carter of Mars" turns 100 years old. Wait…John who?

As far as popular sci-fi fantasy goes, "John Carter" has continued to fly below the mainstream radar yet its legacy has endured largely because it's inspired iconic stories like "Superman," "Buck Rogers," "Lord of the Rings," "Flash Gordon," Star Wars and Avatar. But exactly who John Carter is still remains a bit of a mystery.

Written by legendary "Tarzan" creator Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1912, 'John Carter" first came together in a serial magazine called Under the Moons of Mars and has since yielded 11 books in total. Referred to as the Barsoom series (the fictional name given to Mars) the first book is considered the Rosetta stone of sci-fi fantasy and has had a massive influence on pop culture.

And, on March 9, 2012, "John Carter" finally makes its way to the big screen and we were invited to Disney's Barsoom Studios to get a sneak peek at the movie, still in production.

The film is the first live action movie from writer/director/founding member of the Pixar brain trust Andrew Stanton (WALL-E, Finding Nemo) and follows John Carter (Canadian Taylor Kitsch), a damaged civil war vet mistakenly transported to Mars where he finds himself in the middle of a battle between warring races, and, naturally, a runaway princess (Lynn Collins).

Screened footage included glimpses of Kitsch, awakening on Mars to discover his unique super-ability on the red planet, a first look at the four-armed warrior clan called Tharks, a gladiator-style arena battle with John Carter and a white ape, an impassioned moment between Carter and Princess Dejah Thoris and finally the film's teaser trailer. (You can watch it here.)

Stanton explained he was introduced to "John Carter" at the age of 12, first in comic book form then later as novels.

"In high school, girls would tease me and call them my romance novels because I had a paperback in my back pocket all the time," he offered. "They were sort of my 'Harry Potter' books at the time. The whole stranger in a strange land mythos and discovering this world through them and with them pushed lots of buttons in my primal aspect as a boy. I enjoyed a lot of the potential romance too. I'm a sucker for unrequited love as I'm sure WALL-E shows. Add to it the adventure and it just had all the right things."

john carter

Atmospheric still from John Carter (Courtesy of Disney)

Reading "John Carter" at that age clearly stirred something within Stanton, but he didn't go back and look at those books until his late 20s.

"By then I was sort of like, 'Wow, they're very simplistic and meant for a younger age.' But I put a lot of value in things that stay in your psyche. I believe there's something there that's universal, that's possibly sticking with a lot of other people. So I felt there was really fertile ground there to mine from and maybe improve upon."

Stanton is not known for being a fan of sequels around Pixar, so when he asked Disney to option the first three books ("A Princess of Mars," "The Gods of Mars," "The Warlord of Mars"), the studio was in for a surprise.

"I wanted to try to develop a trilogy from it because, for me, I was introduced to it as a preexisting series. So I thought if it has a good chance of coming to the screen, I would love it to come with the idea of a series – that you already knew this was a world that would go on longer, farther and deeper than the first story."

One of the biggest surprises, though, comes from shortening the film's title to John Carter and dropping the location-specific ending. Many have speculated that the decision was made in light of Disney's recent flick Mars Needs Moms but Stanton quickly put that rumour to rest, noting that he simply wanted to reach the largest audience possible.

"I'm a huge fan of these books and want to honour it as much as anything else, but I also don't want to turn anybody off from coming to see the film initially until they know what it is. I didn't see it being an exclusive kind of genre."

"The movie's all about a guy who becomes John Carter of Mars. I think you can call something anything once audiences like it. So I've been putting my focus on making sure there aren't any of these preconceived things about a fantasy sci-fi film. I see this more of a timeless romance, which is what I got out of the books and that's really how I wanted it to come across. The undercurrent here is more about how our purpose is intertwined with survival and the needs of others."

As for what it was like to work on his first live-action film, Stanton was ebullient.

"I felt like a kid that had been stuck indoors for twenty years and was finally allowed to go outside. I was so excited to be out there seeing stuff being made on the same day within the same hour," he said. "I'm so used to, 'This will be great! See ya in three months!'"

The appeal of instant results may have been rewarding, but that doesn't mean Stanton will be quitting his day job any time soon and instead went beyond Pixar to appeal to a more adult audience.

"Why would I ever leave Pixar? It's the safe haven of filmmaking where we are like free-range chicken! We are allowed to make films without any affectation, without any influence, we just get to make the movies," he offered. "We've not only become masters of making digital films, we've become masters of production. And that translates to a live-action set."

--

Stay tuned for more from our press visit, including details on the cast, working with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon and motion capture technology.



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