The guys at Pixar have apparently made a trip to Edgar Rice Burroughs archives, doing research for a trilogy of John Carter of Mars films. That’s right, they are planning not one, but three films based on Burroughs work. In attendance for the trip: director Andrew Stanton, the director, Mark Andrews, screenwriter and producer of Wall-E / Pixar executive Jim Morris. So it appears that is the creative team on John Carter.
The Pixar team also confirmed to EBZine that the first John Carter film would hit theaters before 2012 (presumably because the world is supposed to end in 2012, or maybe there was just an opening on the schedule, which is probably more likely).
As of right now, this is what Pixar’s future looks something like:
- June 27, 2008: WALL-E, Andrew Stanton (writer/director of Finding Nemo)
- 2009: Up, Pete Docter
- 2010: Toy Story 3, Lee Unkrich (co-driector of Toy Story 2 and Finding Nemo).
- 2011-2012: Which leaves John Carter of Mars and possibly Brad Bird’s adaptation of 1906 (unannounced).
A Princess of Mars was first published in 1917. The movie will follow Civil War vet John Carter, who is transplanted to Mars, where he discovers a lush, wildly diverse planet whose main inhabitants are 12-foot tall green barbarians. Finding himself a prisoner of these creatures, he escapes, only to encounter Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, who is in desperate need of a savior.
October 7th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Why Pixar? That’s odd.
October 7th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
From the picture, it looks like the princess is in desperate need of more clothes!
Will this be Pixar’s first “adult” film??
October 7th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
alright!! pixar can make the phone book interesting, so this should be no problem.
October 7th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Also of note, Brad Bird’s 1906 is expected to be Pixar’s first live action film. Again this is unconfirmed and unannounced.
October 9th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
@mark
no one on Mars (in the books) wears clothes…expect this, and I’m sure dozens of other things, to be changed to get this down to a PG rating (if you make the first book as is it would get an R).
I have a huge amount of respect for Pixar, personally and professionally, but I have a hard time seeing Pixar(read Disney) making these films as they should be made…I hope I’m wrong.
October 10th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Time to check Noah Wylie’s schedule once more and see if had find the time…
October 11th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
pixar may create an adult label or release it under disney’s touchtone (does that still exist?).
one thing for certain: all of pixar’s directors have final cut. it was in their contracts many moons ago, that should their film make over $100 million then they would have final cut on their next project. so far all of pixar’s films have made that.
sometimes it’s good to have two directors on a film. ;)
besides, the proof is in the pudding: when the barracuda attacked in finding nemo, every kid in the theatre was crying (one of my best movie moments). disney would have axed that.