John Carter 2012

John Carter is a 2012 American science fiction adventure film directed by Andrew Stanton. It is based on A Princess of Mars, the first book in the Barsoom series of novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The film chronicles the first interplanetary adventure of John Carter, portrayed by actor Taylor Kitsch. The motion picture marks the centennial of the character's first appearance. The film is the live-action debut for writer and director Stanton; his previous directorial work includes the Pixar animated films Finding Nemo (2003) and WALL-E (2008). Co-written by Stanton, Mark Andrews and Michael Chabon, it was produced by Jim Morris, Colin Wilson, and Lindsey Collins. The film score was orchestrated by musician Michael Giacchino and released by Walt Disney Records on March 6, 2012. The ensemble cast also features Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Ciarán Hinds, and Willem Dafoe.

The film is largely based on A Princess of Mars (1917), the first in a series of 11 novels to feature the interplanetary hero John Carter (and in later volumes the adventures of his children with Dejah Thoris). The story was originally serialized in six monthly installments (from February through July 1912) in the pulp magazine The All-Story; those chapters, originally titled "Under the Moons of Mars," were then collected in hardcover five years later from publisher A. C. McClurg.

In 1931 Looney Tunes director Bob Clampett approached Edgar Rice Burroughs with the idea of adapting A Princess of Mars into a feature-length animated film. Burroughs responded enthusiastically, recognizing that a regular live-action feature would face various limitations to adapt accurately, so he advised Clampett to write an original animated adventure for John Carter.

During the late 1950s famed stop-motion animation effects director Ray Harryhausen expressed interest in filming the novels, but it was not until the 1980s that producers Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna bought the rights for Walt Disney Pictures, with a view to creating a competitor to Star Wars and Conan the Barbarian.  Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio were hired to write, while John McTiernan and Tom Cruise were approached to direct and star. 

The project collapsed because McTiernan realized that visual effects were not yet advanced enough to recreate Burroughs' vision of Barsoom. The project remained at Disney, and Jeffrey Katzenberg was a strong proponent of filming the novels, but the rights eventually returned to the Burroughs estate. Andrew Stanton, director of the animated Pixar hits WALL-E and Finding Nemo, lobbied the studio to reacquire the rights from Burroughs' estate. "Since I'd read the books as a kid, I wanted to see somebody put it on the screen," he explained.

He then lobbied Disney heavily for the chance to direct the film, pitching it as "Indiana Jones on Mars." The studio was initially skeptical. He had never directed a live-action film before, and wanted to make the film without any major stars whose names could guarantee an audience, at least on opening weekend. The screenplay was seen as confusing and difficult to follow. But since Stanton had overcome similar preproduction doubts to make WALL-E and Finding Nemo into hits, the studio approved him as director. Stanton noted he was effectively being "loaned" to Walt Disney Pictures because Pixar is an all-ages brand and John Carter was rated PG-13. By 2008 they completed the first draft for Part one of a John Carter film trilogy; the first film is based only on the first novel. In April 2009 author Michael Chabon confirmed he had been hired to revise the script.

Following the completion of WALL-E, Stanton and Wells visited the archives of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., in Tarzana, California, as part of their research. Jim Morris, general manager of Pixar, said the film will have a unique look that is distinct from Frank Frazetta's illustrations, which they both found dated. He also noted that although he had less time for pre-production than for any of his usual animated projects, the task was nevertheless relatively easy since he had read the Burroughs' novels as a child and had already visualized many of its scenes.

http://disney.go.com/johncarter