Update: John Carter

[chas]

John Carter will be out on March 9! The New Yorker magazine of Oct. 17, 2011 has a great long profile of Disney's Pixar director/writer Andrew Stanton, who also did Finding Nemo and Wall-E.

This was his first live action feature. After a previous two years working on the script, he called in novelist Michael Chabon for even more writing. Bottom line: the special effects, which have been technically undoable for almost a hundred years since the book came out, were easy for him. But he went back and worked hard on story and character, and reshot film again and again.

Stanton wants to make a Mars trilogy of the series set in the later Nineteenth Century that would be probably be called 'pulp adventure' today--John Carter or various avatars of him feature in a number of science fiction steam punk game systems, and led his Red Martians onto the table in a game I ran last year--but the studio won't greenlight that until they see how the first one does at the box office. (They lopped 'of Mars' off from the title to be more female friendly). The theme of the movie: "We survive to fulfill our purpose for others."

A Princess of Mars, the first of twelve John Carter of Mars books by Edgar Rice Burroughs (author of the Tarzan books and many others), was lying around in my parent's basement from when my father was a kid. As a boy I loved reading it, and collected the whole series as they came out in paperback in the Sixties. Now I'm almost 60 years old, and I'll be seeing the flic with a pal who is ten years older.

Various creative figures have tried to bring the property to film over the years. Bob Clampett, one of the original Warner Brothers Looney Tunes studio animators, worked with the Burroughs estate to make drawings for an animated John Carter series, which can be seen on an extra on the DVD of his Sixties cartoon show Beany and Cecil. Up there in the beloved pulp hero pantheon along with Doc Savage and The Shadow, Ex-Confederate Captain John Carter of Virginia may finally be getting his due on screen. In which case we can repeat his defiant catchphrase: "I still live!"

A lot of people want to see this film come out and be good. Here's hoping!

[Fencerjared]

I'm really hoping for this to be good, but am not looking forward to the Disney treatment with this movie. Think "Prince of Persia," and you'll know what I'm afraid of. So, I'll keep my fingers crossed. It can't be any worse than Asylum's "Princess of Mars" with Antonio Sabato Jr. and Traci Lords, right?

[RabSheila]

Originally Posted by chas

A Princess of Mars, the first of twelve John Carter of Mars books by Edgar Rice Burroughs

"Kaor!"

I think there are only eleven books, but it's been awhile, I could be wrong.

I'm looking forward to this one, too.

[ZBeeblebrox]

This movie looks like it could be a lot of fun.

[chas]

The number of "books" depends on how you count them! Noted Burroughs biographer Richard A. Lupoff explains in the introduction to the eleventh volume John Carter of Mars, which was published after the author's death. It is actually made up of two seperate novellas, which might have eventually been lengthened had ERB lived. They are John Carter and the Giant of Mars, and Skeleton Men of Jupiter, which can be considered the eleventh and twelfth adventures of the hero!

Those interested in Burroughs' noted Virginian adventurer and his other characters such as Tarzan, Carson of Venus, David Innes and many others, can check out Lupoff's book Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Master of Adventure (1965).

[screwDriver]

Just saw the second trailer last week. I have to say that when I saw the first trailer last year, I was a bit interested but never did thought about it much. But the second trailer which had more action scenes did start to make me look forward to it.

[Fencerjared]

Originally Posted by chas

The number of "books" depends on how you count them! Noted Burroughs biographer Richard A. Lupoff explains in the introduction to the eleventh volume John Carter of Mars, which was published after the author's death. It is actually made up of two seperate novellas, which might have eventually been lengthened had ERB lived. They are John Carter and the Giant of Mars, and Skeleton Men of Jupiter, which can be considered the eleventh and twelfth adventures of the hero!

Those interested in Burroughs' noted Virginian adventurer and his other characters such as Tarzan, Carson of Venus, David Innes and many others, can check out Lupoff's book Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Master of Adventure (1965).

Except JCatGM was written by his son, Jack Burroughs, not ERB.

I've only read one of the Amtor novels, Carson of Venus, I think. I've read all of the Tarzan books, but never any of the Pellucidar stories.

[chas]

For what its worth, Lupoff, writing in 1964, weighs in on the controversy over authorship after getting the story from Hulbert Burroughs. He explains that Giant was cowritten with son John Coleman (who also illustrated it) for a children's book adaptation, and then lenghthened by ERB for later 'adult' publication in a magazine.

The ERB books I managed to collect still sit on my shelf. Most are 1960s paperbacks, except the few old hardbacks I found in my basement as a boy which had been lying around from when my father read them as a lad himself (not quite first editions).

The pulp 'history' book I never read was Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life by Philipe Jose Farmer, noted Sci Fi author (The Riverworld novels, among others). In it he purports to connect by blood almost all pulp heroes, from The Lone Ranger to Zorro!

[chas]

Aha! Good thinking! Now that I have my first new PC in 11 years, I can do cool online searches too! So I went to imdb and saw the trailer ('Super Bowl spot'). From this, it looks like a good B movie with fine special effects. However, trailers are a lowest common denominator type of thing, so I can hope for better. Well, after all, its a pulp adventure to begin with, no matter how beloved the characters are personally. Starting March 9 at a theater near you...

[RabSheila]

Originally Posted by chas

The number of "books" depends on how you count them!

Ah. I thought for a second you might be talking about the rare "I am John Carter from Mars! Not John Carter from ER!" volume. Where in a case of mistaken identity, our heroic Virginian warlord finds himself in a Chicago hospital, pressed into service as an ER surgeon. Pretty boring if you expected any swordplay, but not so bad if you like medical drama.

[chas]

John Carter has also "appeared" in various steampunk miniatures games, set in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen universe, where heroes of the era band together to fight evil, or similar scenarios.

Game rules for this kind of thing include SPACE 1889, SKY GALLEONS OF MARS, G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T., and VALOR & STEEL & FLESH.


In the one such game I ran with my 54mm toy soldiers, "VICTORIA AND ALEXANDER ON MARS," Victorian British and Russian Martian Expeditionary columns advanced from opposite ends of the table to save their respective settlers. These hardy pioneering souls were being evicted by John Carter and his Red Martians, with the help of deep space alien tripod technology. The game included flying Civil War ironclads, steam landships, giant mecharobots, a canal navigating steamboat, and even a motorcycle with a machine gun mounted sidecar--along with the usual infantry, cavalry, artillery, and settler militia! The Earthlings managed to save their civilians over the bizarre alien terrain.

Here's hoping the Disney movie is accompanied by the merchandizing of LOTS OF USEFUL TOYS!!!

[RabSheila]

Originally Posted by chas

John Carter has also "appeared" in various steampunk miniatures games

Any John Carter miniatures that would work for custom 'Scape pieces?