Andrew Stanton Writing 'John Carter of Mars'

But is it for Pixar?

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Sunday, June 8th 2008 at 3:30 PM

Andrew Stanton directed the upcoming Disney/Pixar feature WALL•E and is known for directing Finding Nemo and A Bug's Life for the CG-animation studio and it appears his next flick may in fact be the long gestating "John Carter of Mars" based on Edgar Rice Burroughs series of stories.

The film adaptation of the famous sci-fi series has moved around quite a bit over the past few years. Kerry Conran was developing it at one point, but after the failure of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow we haven't heard from him. Jon Favreau was attached back in October of 2005 and then fell off the project. Then Pixar was attached to the work and has been for some time, but back in April when Disney announced their upcoming slate of animated films for the years 2008 – 2012 John Carter of Mars was not one of the titles. Of course, this was technically Disney's slate, but they are in bed with Pixar and the announcement was made by Dick Cook, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, and John Lasseter, chief creative officer for Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios.

So, when Stanton tells The Pixar Blog that he is currently writing John Carter of Mars it doesn't necessarily mean it is for Pixar, but considering his past dealings with the studio I think it is safe to assume that is the case.

Of course, with a lack of details, the fact that just because he is writing it doesn't mean it will be greenlit. It seems this is a difficult film to get off the ground and I can only assume it must be heavy in effects considering live-action versions never began production and it has found its way to Pixar's animation house.

I have not actually read any of the stories, but it seems people are quite enamored with them. Burroughs is probably best known for his Tarzan stories, but should the "John Carter" stories actually find their way to the big screen the series could find itself with a whole new legion of fans. I am tempted to pick up the books myself simply based on the large interest people seem to have in whether or not the film will get off the ground.

From what I can tell, and correct me if I am wrong, there are twelve stories in the "Mars" series beginning with "The Princess of Mars" and ending with "Skeleton Men of Jupiter". The story is that John Carter is an American civil war hero from Virginia and he somehow ends up on Mars where he joins up with a red species of aliens fighting against the green men of Mars. That is an abbreviated take on what I have read of course. It appears Amazon.com sells all twelve stories in six volumes of books.