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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'John Carter' Poster & Pics

carter-one-sheetIn these pictures from Walt Disney Studio’s JOHN CARTER, we see Carter (Taylor Kitsch) with Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins) as well as the CGI versions of Tars Tarkas (voiced by Wilem Dafoe) and Carter’s Martian”calot” Woola, a sort of cross between a six legged reptile and a guard dog.  
Kitsch and  Collins both appeared ing X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE (as Gambit and Silver Fox, respectively).
Directed by Andrew Stanton (WALL-E) from a screenplay by Stanton, Mark Andrews and Michael Chabon, JOHN CARTER is based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars.  
The film, orginally to be called JOHN CARTER OF MARS, is due in theaters in 2-D and 3-D March 9th, 2012.

JOHN CARTER
Nature-gal Dejah must have felt chilly that day.

Personally, I think the settings and character/creature designs are extremely mundane and disappointing, considering the cost of the production and the the fact that they seem to basically ignore Burrough’s  vividly described versions.
JOHN CARTER & Tars Tarkas
Tars Tarkas looks like a pin-head, rather sporting than the novel's spherical cranium.

I realize a Disney film (and any general audience version) couldn’t feature essentially nude characters, but other than Kitsch’s bared chest, you’d expect to see more skln in a wholesome 1960’s Beach Party movie than the released stills and trailer seem to suggest.
The oddly Muppet-y version of Woola
The oddly Muppet-y version of Woola

Barsoom Dogfight
Barsoom Dogfight