Presentation Reel for JOHN CARTER Film That Could Have Been
Before Disney nabbed the rights to Edgar Rice Burrough‘s beloved science fiction series John Carter of Mars, Paramount Pictures was looking to adapt them into feature films. Kerry Conran, the director of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, was set to helm the film, and Harry Knowles of Ain't it Cool News was going to produce.
It was Knowles who released the following presentation real that offers up lots of beautiful artwork and some really cool fight choreography. It gives us a solid idea of what Conran's vision for this film would have been, and it looks like it would have been pretty damn cool. As you'll see, it had more of a pulp kind of feel to it, which I actually like.
As you already know, the version of the film that Andrew Stanton directed for Disney ended up being a box office disaster. It's not that it was a bad film, because it was actually really quite good — the marketing for it was handled terribly though. As a fan of the book series, I would have liked to see Conran's version of the movie, but that's never going to happen. It's going to be a long time before someone tries to financially back another John Carter movie.
Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. has been in the process of developing of a new film. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of their efforts.