Awesome Concept Art for JOHN CARTER - Andrew Stanton Talks about the Film

I'm extremely excited about the Andrew Stanton directed Disney film John Carter, which is an adaptation of the epic sci-fi Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars book series collection. The film will follow the space adventure of a Civil War soldier named John Carter who is transported to Mars where he becomes involved with a heated conflict among the inhabitants of the planet, he helps to liberate the natives. 

There is some great concept art here from the film that gives us an idea of the epicness that this film holds. Stanton also talked about the film in a recent interview with the LA Times. Here are a few things that he had to say:

Here he listed off the films he looked at for inspiration:

I looked at things like “Apocaplyto” and “Rome” and even things like “Shogun” and “Lawrence of Arabia,” things that as a viewer I could accept as having a level of historical research.  They give me a sense of what it would be like in that land and in that age. We tried to make it feel like we’re going with the story of what really happened. This is how it was, this is how those cultures really existed. That was one of the many levels, for instance, that I enjoyed “The Lord of the Rings” on. One of the similarities between Tolkien and Burroughs is that they came across to the reader as if they had done so much travel research; they seemed like they had gone to these places and documented the flora and the fauna and the architecture and the culture and the rules. They did it in ways that someone who visited those places would have done it. That made it much easier to treat the film as history in a weird way because I had this encyclopedia of all the aspects of Mars.

He goes on to talk about the look and style of the film:

I kept using the word “authentic” when I was out on set or doing art in development. I just wanted things to look like they had been through weather and use. I wanted things to look beat-up and old. This may sound weird, but I was always so impressed by the Monty Python films and Terry Gilliam’s sense of production value. Things really felt like they had been through the mud. And if you look at most historical films, for a little too long they always gave us things that looked a little too clean. People on my set could not distress things enough for me. Everything was pre-industrial; I wanted it to look made by hand. I wanted the pre-revolution days of Mars to look like tall ships on the skyline. And to get that to come across through the lens and then up on the screen, you just couldn’t beat stuff up enough. I remember once we had this great big deck gun and my weapons guy made this beautiful object. In his mind it looks weathered but I stepped back about 20 feet and said from here it looks brand new. I told him he should go take an ax to it and get it some really big nicks to it. He said, “You’re kidding me?” But he did it, he took the ax to it, he wouldn’t let anybody else do it to his baby. But that’s how we wanted everything, dirty, used, distressed and, hopefully, historical.

I love that Monty Python was an inspiration on the film and it's design. He also talks about the fact that the the movie wont be showing up at Comic Con, which is a bloody shame.

I think what it was is the perception that it’s getting harder and harder to stand out amid the din. We’re going to do our special event to get some focus and separation. I know some people will read that as a sign that we’re unsure of our property. It’s just the opposite. We want to control how and what is being seen and the way it is presented. So much stuff now is just spit out so fast and the churn of it all. You almost gain nothing by talking about things really early in this day and age. I think in the future we might see things arrive the way Prince announces a concert where a few days before the show he announces it and tickets just go up. You might see that with movies and other things. That seems like the only way to get people interested and then capitalize off that interest.

It still sucks that we won't see anything for the film at Comic-Con. I do like what Stanton is going for in this film adaptation and I think it's going to turn out being an awesome film. I can't wait to start seeing some footage. 

John Carter also has an awesome cast of actors that includes Taylor Kitsch, Willem Dafoe, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, Daryl Sabara, Polly Walker, Bryan Cranston and Thomas Hayden Church.

Here's the full synopsis of the film:

From Academy Award(R)-winning filmmaker Andrew Stanton comes John Carter--a sweeping action-adventure set on the mysterious and exotic planet of Barsoom (Mars). John Carter is based on a classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose highly imaginative adventures served as inspiration for many filmmakers, both past and present. The film tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.

The film is scheduled to be released on March 9th 2012.