John Carter : A Princess of Mars

http://superherohype.com/news.php?id=3073

http://www.nowplayingmag.com/content/view/1605/2/
Screenwriter Ehren Kruger is a busy man these days. With The Brothers Grimm and The Skeleton Key both coming this summer, plus scripts for Blood and Chocolate and John Carter of Mars in progress, the Ring and Scream 3 scripter is clearly sticking to the sci-fi and horror pictures that he got his start with. Now Playing recently grabbed Kruger for a quick update on some of these projects.

“I’m in the writing process for John Carter of Mars, working with the director — [Sky Captain’s] Kerry Conran,” says Kruger of the Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptation. “He’s in, too, with his visual design team — the effects, and the sort of outlandish worlds that need to be created for that. He has to design all that. So we’re pretty [well] along with the script. It’s a faithful adaptation to the novels, but the novels were written in the teens and ’20s, so there’s some degree of modernization just to the tone of them. But in terms to the story, we are trying to be as faithful as we can because those novels inspired a lot of the science fiction and fantasy that came later in the century.”



Woo-hoo! I've been waiting twenty years for someone to attempt this movie.
Having Conran attached to direct is a perfect idea IMO.

 

Heres the cover to the original book:


Here's a brief synopsis of the book:
Although Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) is justifiably famous as the creator of Tarzan of the Apes, that uprooted Englishman was not his only popular hero. Burroughs's first sale (in 1912) was A Princess of Mars, opening the floodgates to one of the must successful--and prolific--literary careers in history. This is a wonderful scientific romance that perhaps can be best described as early science fiction melded with an epic dose of romantic adventure. A Princess of Mars is the first adventure of John Carter, a Civil War veteran who unexpectedly find himself transplanted to the planet Mars. Yet this red planet is far more than a dusty, barren place; it's a fantasy world populated with giant green barbarians, beautiful maidens in distress, and weird flora and monstrous fauna the likes of which could only exist in the author's boundless imagination. Sheer escapism of the tallest order, the Martian novels are perfect entertainment for those who find Tarzan's fantastic adventures aren't, well, fantastic enough. Although this novel can stand alone, there are a total of 11 volumes in this classic series of otherworldly, swashbuckling adventure.

 

Well they run around naked in most of the book, so imagine they'll start there
Not too sure, they really dont mention that its called A Princess of Mars so they be blending aspects from mor than one book, all of which are pretty good, some better than others. Some of the martians may be a little difficult to put on screen by their descriptions in the book, but that didnt stop Jackson and WETA from doing an incredible job. After seeing and liking Sky Captain(though I know lots of people didnt) Im really excited about this, it has amazing potential. The casting of John Carter and Dejah Thoris(the princess) will be vital.

 

You'd cast Scarlett in everything . Well the Princess(and her race of people are red skinned) they could change that, though I really think they shouldnt. She is suppose to be the most beautiful woman...blah,blah,blah, yeah I guess Scarlett would work she'd need dark hair though. John carter himself is suppose to be early thirties if I recall, he's been at war and come back. I always thought Matthew Mcconaughey(sp?) would make a good John Carter, they may look ant someone younger for this though. Whoever they get has to be in great shape as John Carter is described. When he arrives on Mars the gravity of the planet affects him, he can jump long distances, he's stronger, etc....

 

Techinically, he's too short, but I wont nit-pick over things like that. I didnt see Sahara...was it any good?

 

Why no Scarlett Lizard?
Tar Tarkas is one bad mofo....I cant wait to see what Woola is gonna look like.

 

Wow, ok, at least you are honest(brutally so) . To each his/her own.
Who would you cast as Dejah?

 

Mia I could deal with but no Penelope (overbite) Cruz, who cant act unless it's in her own language. Personally I wish Giselle Bundchen could act....she would make one hell of Dejah (visually).

 

Giselle doesnt seem to be too fond of clothes either.

Too true...sadly.

 

A bit of in interview with Conran from awhile back.

http://www.comics2film.com/ProjectFrame.php?f_id=156
Soothsayer: There is a rumor that you will be directing the adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs "A Princess of Mars", the first novel in the John Carter of Mars series. Is that true?

Conran: That seems to be true.

Soothsayer: Are you a fan of those books as well?

Conran: Oh, sure. It had been many years since I had last read them and I have subsequently reread them. But I think in those books in particular you can see where George Lucas developed some of his ideas for "Star Wars" and where J.R.R. Tolkien came up with some of his ideas for "The Lord of the Rings" even. In a way the John Carter story is a combination of those two worlds. I also think that in that aspect it will be quite the opportunity and challenge to do something that audiences have quite seen before.

Soothsayer: I have been collecting some of the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs for going on 10 years now and I even have some Canadian first editions. I was so excited when John Carter was first optioned.

Conran: The film is going to be an enormous undertaking but we are excited and thrilled that we have been given the chance to finally bring it to life.

Soothsayer: Tars Tarkas, the four-armed man is going to be quite the challenge I imagine.

Conran: It is going to be quite tricky. But aside from it technically it is going to be hard to ring-out a performance especially since we want it to be a real and rich character.

Soothsayer: Did you ever see a rather bad '80s sci-fi movie called "Krull"?

Conran: Sure.

Soothsayer: Do you remember the Cyclops in "Krull"?

Conran: Vaguely. I really don't remember the movie very well other than the title.

Soothsayer: You might want to go back and look at that film again. In part, at least in my vision, the Cyclops in "Krull" is what I think that Tars Tarkas, the four-armed guy's personality would be like.

Conran: Really? Oh, wow. I will.

 

Nice points Ratcrawler, I think people dont understand that Burroughs writings inspired alot of what we see in movies and characters nowadays.