John Carter of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs is most know for creating Tarzan but he wrote a lot of other series and his second most famous creation was John Carter of Mars as found in the Barsoom series. I've never read any of them but they look interesting.

Well Disney is making a movie version. I've heard horrible things about it, everyone expects it to fail. That's disappointing. Taylor Kitsch stars and I liked him in the TV series Friday Night Lights. He can certainly act. Moreso it's written and directed by Pixar's Andrew Stanton, best known for writing and directing Finding Nemo and WALL-E. There's little reason for these people to make a crappy film.

But that's what people are expecting. A week ago The Daily Beast wrote a detailed article, ‘John Carter’: Disney’s Quarter-Billion-Dollar Movie Fiasco. "Around Hollywood, Disney’s quarter-billion-dollar 3-D epic John Carter holds a dubious renown: it’s the film with Avatar-size ambitions that’s being greeted sight unseen as the next Ishtar." It blames a few Disney executives who have come and gone and a bad marketing campaign (there aren't even toys ready). In fact the official trailers have been awful. It's just a bunch of creatures fighting in an arena, you have no idea what's going on.

A few days later The Hollywood Reporter wrote Low interest and bad buzz prompt a last-ditch marketing effort for the big budget attempt at launching a new franchise. "High-profile TV spots during the Super Bowl and the Grammys prompted online derision rather than excitement, drawing comparisons (not in a good way) to Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace, while an indistinct billboard campaign has left some unclear that the film is an Avatar-like 3D epic."

"Observers also have taken aim at the studio's decision to drop "of Mars" from the title, arguing that the property loses definition and scope without it. Insiders say the title change was hotly debated a year ago when the word "Mars" was verboten in the wake of Disney's March 2011 bomb Mars Needs Moms. According to several sources, the studio conducted a study of how the word would play with potential audiences. The results were pointed enough -- Disney's 2000 sci-fi film Mission to Mars and Warner Bros.' 1996 sci-fi comedy Mars Attacks! weren't hits, either -- that the studio stripped out mention of the red planet. ("It was the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," says one person who was privy to the research. "You lose any kind of scope the movie has," says another insider of the generic title. "John Carter of Mars gave the movie context."

At the same time, the trailer campaign has showcased the film's Mars setting rather than risk turning people off with shots of star Taylor Kitsch in Civil War-era garb (he's a soldier transported to a battle on Mars). Critics say the fear of Carter being labeled a period film also has muddied the property's core identity and sacrificed an opportunity to explain its narrative arc that could have hooked fans."

As every reality show judging like Top Chef or Project Runway has ever said, you have to defend your work and be confident in it. That focus group spoof during the Oscars made the same point. I just don't understand the concept of "we'll drop Mars from the title to not scare women away". As if they'll go anyway (ignoring the reviews that are out opening day) and then not feel tricked once they see the film and then hate it even more. As the American Experience Clinton biography I just watched pointed out yet again, it's not the sin it's the cover-up. Hollywood, stop trying to trick your customers.

And then comes this:

"From http://thejohncarterfiles.com This John Carter Fan Trailer is offered in the spirit of "we want to help". It's made from elements available online as of Feb 5, 2012. We're doing our best to help this film along. Longtime fans of the books."



That actually looks interesting. Was that so hard?

There was a screening a few days ago. One of my favorite comic authors, Ed Brubaker has been tweeting about how great the film is. Ain't It Cool News called it "amazing". And even The Guardian loved it. I'm looking forward to it.