Studios Slowly Releasing Info on John Carter Movies
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009Movies based on science fiction books often do well at the box office and that is partly because they are so imaginative and partly because studios have to make such a large investment in special effects, props, and set construction they put as much effort into promoting the films as they possibly can. That includes media campaigns that often start up years in advance of the actual movies’ release. Some studios reach out to popular science fiction fan sites and work with them to provide special coverage of events leading up to the movie releases as well.
The Disney Studios in conjunction with Pixar Animation Studios have been taking a subtler approach to promoting their upcoming trilogy of movies based on Edgar Rice Burroughs‘ John Carter of Mars. They have let people know the project is in the works but they have released as little information as possible. Entertainment sites have been clamoring for tidbits of information at every celebrity gathering, probing actors who are associated with the movies with questions, pleas for insights, and following up with outrageously brief update reports that mostly recap rehashed information.
If Disney and Pixar want to whip the Internet up into a frothing frenzy of anticipation, they may have found the exact formula for doing so. There seems to be no end of articles about the John Carter of Mars movie project despite the dearth of information. We do know, however, that Pixar producer/writer/voice actor Andrew Stanton is in control of the project. Stanton himself has been very close-lipped but he, in turn, brought in Michael Chabon to help with screen writing.
We also know that Taylor Kitsch plays John Carter and Lynn Collins plays Dejah Thoris, the princess of Mars with whom Carter falls in love and shares many adventures. We also know that principal photography has begun in Utah, where Kitsch and Collins will go leaping across the ochre moss plains of Barsoom.
Other actors attached to the movie projects include Willem Dafoe (Tars Tarkas), Samantha Morton (Sola), Thomas Hayden Church (Tal Hajus), and James Purefoy (Kantos Kan), to name just a few. Except for Dafoe, who has teased fans and news media alike with a few terse sentences, the cast and crew have been largely silent about the films.