lpetrich
23 Jan 2010, 05:00 PM
Andrew Stanton's adaptation of John Carter Of Mars begins shooting today - HitFix.com (http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/2008-12-6-motion-captured/posts/john-carter-of-mars-is-shooting-and-all-is-right-with-the-world)
In the first half of the 20th century, novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote his Tarzan and Mars novels. While Hollywood has made numerous Tarzan movies, it has not made a Mars movie -- until now.
In ERB's Mars novels, a Civil War veteran named John Carter gets mysteriously transported to Mars, and he discovers that planet to be a habitable and abundantly inhabited world whose inhabitants call it Barsoom. He has lots of adventures there, including with Princess Dejah Thoris of Helium; the two have some children.
ERB was inspired by what astronomer Percival Lowell thought Mars was like. He proposed that Mars's inhabitants had built great waterworks to tap the water at Mars's poles, waterworks which he observed as those infamous "canals".
However, ERB was never one to let dull reality interfere with his fantasies. He never visited Africa, and he was lucky to die 15 years before the first spacecraft visit of Mars, Mariner 4 in 1965. Since then, several other spacecraft have been sent there, and what they radioed back has agreed with Percival Lowell's more skeptical colleagues. A latter-day John Carter without appropriate protection would die in a few minutes there.
ERB's Mars novels, in turn, inspired Carl Sagan to go into planetary science, and CS took part in making some of these disappointing discoveries.
That movie will feature several familiar or half-familiar people, like:
John Carter: Taylor Kitsch (NBC’S “Friday Night Lights”, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”)
Dejah Thoris: Lynn Collins (“50 First Dates,” “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”)
Tars Tarkas: Willem Dafoe (“Spider-Man 3,” “Shadow of a Vampire”)
In the first half of the 20th century, novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote his Tarzan and Mars novels. While Hollywood has made numerous Tarzan movies, it has not made a Mars movie -- until now.
In ERB's Mars novels, a Civil War veteran named John Carter gets mysteriously transported to Mars, and he discovers that planet to be a habitable and abundantly inhabited world whose inhabitants call it Barsoom. He has lots of adventures there, including with Princess Dejah Thoris of Helium; the two have some children.
ERB was inspired by what astronomer Percival Lowell thought Mars was like. He proposed that Mars's inhabitants had built great waterworks to tap the water at Mars's poles, waterworks which he observed as those infamous "canals".
However, ERB was never one to let dull reality interfere with his fantasies. He never visited Africa, and he was lucky to die 15 years before the first spacecraft visit of Mars, Mariner 4 in 1965. Since then, several other spacecraft have been sent there, and what they radioed back has agreed with Percival Lowell's more skeptical colleagues. A latter-day John Carter without appropriate protection would die in a few minutes there.
ERB's Mars novels, in turn, inspired Carl Sagan to go into planetary science, and CS took part in making some of these disappointing discoveries.
That movie will feature several familiar or half-familiar people, like:
John Carter: Taylor Kitsch (NBC’S “Friday Night Lights”, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”)
Dejah Thoris: Lynn Collins (“50 First Dates,” “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”)
Tars Tarkas: Willem Dafoe (“Spider-Man 3,” “Shadow of a Vampire”)