John Carter Of Mars Gets Fav-tastic!

Hey guys, it's Donnie...Everyday, when I write the articles for this site, I always write them in a specific order, with the most interesting/exciting one at the top of the page, so as to grab the reader's attention. Most days, it's pretty clear cut which article is getting the prime seat, but today I honestly had to spend a few minutes going back and forth between that great Syriana trailer, and this little gem. Ultimately, I felt that this was a little more exciting and I hope you agree. If not, you can eat my proverbial shorts.

John Carter Of Mars, the adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs novel A Princess Of Mars (and the 10 other novels that followed) has undergone quite the development process. Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News fame is producing and he originally brought Robert Rodriguez in to direct from a script by Mark Protosevich. However, a dispute with the Director's Guild over Frank Miller's co-directing credit on Sin City (The DGA told him no and he resigned from the guild in defiance) forced him to drop the project. Kerry Conran, director of the gorgeous if somewhat aimless Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow, was brought in to replace him, and Ehren Kruger was asked to punch up the script. Unfortunately, his new draft didn't really cause too much excitement and Kerry Conran got wrapped up in another pulp sci-fi property to be announced, so as of this morning, he's gone.

But trust Harry to take care of business. It was announced last night that they've hired Jon Favreau, fresh off Zathura, to step up to the directing plate. He'll be getting started on the project ASAP, diving in headfirst once Zathura gets release this December. He and Harry have been friends for a while, and I know that he's persoanlly screening his sci-fi quasi follow-up to Jumanji at Harry's Fantastic Fest in Austin this weekend. I've read a number of interviews with him and he talks at great length about how he only likes using CGI when he absolutely has to. He's a great advocate for practical effects and puppetry, and I think that his sort of style is PERFECTLY suited to this project. Harry says that he's currently locking down the effects team and that he'll be bringing in a new screenwriter to bring the script back closer to the novel.

The story centers on John Carter, a veteran of the recent Civil War who runs into a cave while escaping a group of Apache Indians. He accidentally stumbles into a time portal that sends him to the planet Barsoom, where he battles 12 foot tall, four-armed green aliens while defending the novel's titular princess. I've never read the novels, but I've seen alot of the illustrations online, and this looks to be pulp sci-fi at it's finest.

Start getting excited...