John Carter; A Thousand Words & Silent House – CFQ Spotlight Podcast 3:10

Do you have a lee-zance for zose minkeys?: Taylor Kitsch gets a bonus in simians in JOHN CARTER.
Do you have a lee-zance for zose minkeys?: Taylor Kitsch gets a bonus in simians in JOHN CARTER.

Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, James Kirk, Luke Skywalker. Bleep those guys; as an interplanetary adventurer, John Carter has ’em all beat by at least ten years. Bringing the star of   Edgar Rice Burroughs’ series of Barsoom novels to the screen has been a long-sought-after passion project for a number of filmmakers, including Bob Clampett, Ray Harryhausen, John McTiernan, and Robert Rodriguez, but it was Andrew Stanton — previously known for his work at Pixar, including directing FINDING NEMO and WALL-E — who finally got the chance, with Disney as his generous backer. Now his big-budget, live-action debut (laced with a healthy portion of computer-generated characters) JOHN CARTER, based on the debut tale A Princess of Mars, has come to the big screen, with Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, and Willem Dafoe starring.
beabetterbooktalker.com‘s Andrea Lipinski joins Cinefantastique’s Lawrence French and Dan Persons to to soak in the magnificent vistas of Mars and see whether the adventure matches the scenery. Also: Andrea gives her thoughts on the Eddie Murphy comic fantasy, A THOUSAND WORDS, and Dan talks about the real-time horror film SILENT HOUSE, the surreal Swedish musical fantasy THE SOUND OF NOISE, and the borderland whatsit TIM AND ERIC’S BILLION DOLLAR MOVIE. Plus: What’s coming to home video.
Technical Note: The long running time for this show means we’ve had to settle for lower audio quality. Just imagine it’s 1933 and you’re listening to Little Orphan Annie. Keep drinking your Ovaltine!

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New 'John Carter' TV Spot

Disney’s feature film adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs’ (creator of Tarzan) sci-fi/fantasy hero is due in  3D, 2D and IMAX 3D theaters on March 9th.
Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Willem Dafoe (voice & mocap), Ciaran Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, Daryl Sabara, Polly Walker, Bryan Cranston, and Thomas Hayden Church star in the film, directed by Andrew Stanton from a screenplay by Stanton, Mark Andrews and Michael Chabon.
Based on Burrough’s first novel “A Princess of Mars”.
Yahoo Movies via paplbonphanatix3

John Carter to land on Mars in 2012

click to purchase
click to purchase

Walt Disney Pictures has scheduled JOHN CARTER OF MARS, the big-budget adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs series of novels, for June 8, 2012. The story follows a Civil War vet who somehow winds up transported to Mars, where he plays a key role in planet-wide warfare. The cast includes Taylor Kitsch in the lead, along with Lynn Collins, Thomas Haden Church, James Purefoy, Willem Dafoe, Samantha Morton, Dominic West, Polly Walker, and Mark Strong. The film will be shot in Disney Digital 3D. Andrew Stanton is directing, from a screenplay he cowrote with Michael Chabon.
The character of John Carter appeared in over a dozen of novels, the first being A Princess of Mars. Back in the 1980s, that novel was headed for the big-screen as a lavish feature film, with John McTiernan (PREDATOR) set to direct, but it died in development when budget estimates came in at over $100-million (in the days before TERMINATOR 2 proved that such an expensive film could still turn a profit). Instead, a direct-t0-video version emerged last year, starring Antonio Sabato Jr and Trci Lords. Presumably, this version of PRINCESS OF MARS  is so low-profile that it will not undermine the box office fortunes of Disney’s big-budget epic.
Release date: June 8 March 9, 2012.
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'Princess Of Mars' Airs Sat. -Trailer

Have you heard about that Direct-to-Video version of Edgar Rice Burroughs A PRINCESS OF MARS? Catch it for free on SyFy this Saturday at 9 PM ET/PT.
It’s billed as a “SyFy Original”, but it’s really from The Asylum, that cheeky band of movie privateers headed by producer David Michael Latt (WAR OF THE WORLDS [2005]).
Anything that is in the public domain, or can be aped with a slight but similar name change (TRANSMORPHERS, anyone?) is fair game for this outfit.
It’s based on the Tarzan creator’s first published work, the 1912 serial novel (originally published in the All-Story Magazine as ‘Under the Moons of Mars’), and in book form as A Princess of Mars in 1917. It’s now apparrently PD, probably to Disney’s dismay.
Many filmmakers have tried to bring ERB’s seminal sci-fi hero to the screen before, but this one was the first to come to fruition.
The movie stars Antonio Sabato Jr. as John Carter, a former solider mysteriously transported to Mars, and Traci Lords as Deja Thoris, the titluar princess. (Sadly for traditionalists, she seems to lack the dark hair, red skin and habitual nudity of her literary counterpart.)
Written, Produced, and Photographed by Mark Atkins (DRAGONQUEST) — and he worked on the Special Effects, too! I think you really have to admire that kind of work, regardless of the film’s mertits.
Check out the trailer.