Andrew Stanton fans, Taylor Kitsch fans, and Edgar Rice Burroughs fans now have something in common: Taylor Kitsch will play Burroughs’ swashbuckling space hero John Carter of Mars in a movie to be directed by Andrew Stanton. Stanton co-directed the hit animated feature film “A Bug’s Life” in 1998 and the feature animation blockbusters “Finding Nemo” (2003) and “WALL-E” (2008). Observers expect “John Carter of Mars” to be another major hit from the Disney/Pixar team.
Kitsch made his mark in movies such as “John Tucker Must Die”, “Snakes On A Plane”, “X-Men: Wolverine”, and the show Friday Night Lights. Lynn Collins, who also appeared in “X-Men: Wolverine” as Silverfox (Kitsch played Gambit), co-stars in “John Carter of Mars” as the Martian princess Dejah Thoris. The original story, written by Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1912, was titled A Princess of Mars.
Although there are several John Carter of Mars blogs that keep up with the latest news and information about the movie project, the cast and crew have been very reluctant to discuss details — or else they haven’t really known much. Collins recently reported that she had done some makeup and wardrobe work to prep for filming. Willem Dafoe, who plays the Thark (green man) warrior prince Tars Tarkus has begun prepping for his motion-capture work.
A Frequently Asked Questions document about John Carter of Mars reveals that the character appeared in 11 books, of which Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote 10 and 1/2. Burroughs himself appears in several of the books as minor character and relative of the immortal John Carter. Burroughs was not quite so immortal himself: he died at age 74 on March 19, 1950.
