Opening in theaters on March 9th is the new 3D science fantasy film John Carter, which is based on an eleven volume series of novels entitled Barsoom by legendary author Edgar Rice Burroughs. The movie is helmed by Academy Award winning director Andrew Stanton (WALL-E) and stars Taylor Kitsch (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) in the title role. John Carter also features a supporting cast that includes Lynn Collins (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man), Thomas Haden Church (Spider-Man 3), Samantha Morton (Minority Report), Dominic West (300), Ciaran Hinds (Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance), Bryan Cranston (Drive), and Mark Strong (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy).  

IAR's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick recently had the rare chance to travel to Scottsdale, Arizona to speak with actors Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, and Dominic West about their work on John Carter. The actors discussed the new film, their characters, Kitsch's pressure to become John Carter, his first meeting with director Andrew Stanton, why Collins did not use the original source material to create her character, the film's use of visual effects, and West's attraction to playing villains.

Opening in theaters on March 9th is the new 3D science fantasy film John Carter, which is based on an eleven volume series of novels entitled Barsoom by legendary author Edgar Rice Burroughs. The movie is helmed by Academy Award winning director Andrew Stanton (WALL-E) and stars Taylor Kitsch (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) in the title role. John Carter also features a supporting cast that includes Lynn Collins (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man), Thomas Haden Church (Spider-Man 3), Samantha Morton (Minority Report), Dominic West (300), Ciaran Hinds (Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance), Bryan Cranston (Drive), and Mark Strong (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy).  

IAR's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick recently had the rare chance to travel to Scottsdale, Arizona to speak with two-time Academy Award nominee Willem Dafoe about his work on John Carter. Dafoe discussed the new film, his unique character, how he prepared physically for the role, CGI versus live action, and director Andrew Stanton's passion for the project. 

Opening in theaters on March 9th is the new 3D science fantasy film John Carter, which is based on an eleven volume series of novels entitled Barsoom by legendary author Edgar Rice Burroughs. The movie is helmed by Academy Award winning director Andrew Stanton (WALL-E) and stars Taylor Kitsch (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) in the title role. John Carter also features a supporting cast that includes Lynn Collins (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man), Thomas Haden Church (Spider-Man 3), Samantha Morton (Minority Report), Dominic West (300), Ciaran Hinds (Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance), Bryan Cranston (Drive), and Mark Strong (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy).  

IAR's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick recently had the pleasure of traveling to Scottsdale, Arizona to speak with director Andrew Stanton about his work on John Carter. Stanton discussed the new movie, it's groundbreaking title, not compromising the original source material, making his dream project, casting Taylor Kitsch as John Carter, and the possibility of the film becoming a franchise. 

Nobody likes being the subject of embarrassing or potentially damaging rumors, particularly when those rumors involve assertions that their own professional inexperience led directly to an excessive production on a major motion picture.  For the last half a year, stories have circulated suggesting that next month's John Carter was a money-hemorrhage for Disney, and that director Andrew Stanton's live action debut ended up costing almost twice as much as its original, already hefty, price tag.  Naturally, Stanton and his producers are looking to clarify the process and have denied those rumors.

Opening in theaters on March 9th is the new 3D science fantasy film John Carter, which is based on an eleven volume series of novels entitled Barsoom by legendary author Edgar Rice Burroughs. The movie is helmed by Academy Award winning director Andrew Stanton (WALL-E) and stars Taylor Kitsch (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) in the title role. John Carter also features a supporting cast that includes Lynn Collins (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man), Thomas Haden Church (Spider-Man 3), Samantha Morton (Minority Report), Dominic West (300), Ciaran Hinds (Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance), Bryan Cranston (Drive), and Mark Strong (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy).  

IAR's very own Rocio Anica recently had a chance to speak with costume designer Mayes C. Rubeo (Avatar) about her work on John Carter. Rubeo discussed the new film, creating its exotic wardrobe, and she even gave Anica a tour of some of the fantastic costumes that she created for the upcoming film. 

With just under a month and a half until the movie actually opens domestically, Disney still has a lot of work to do selling John Carter to a mainstream audience.  Most people don't know Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars from Adam, given that it's a nearly one-hundred year old science fiction adventure tale, so the studio can't exactly sell John Carter as a much-loved, seminal story finally making it to the screen after so many fruitless attempts, nor can they hang it all on a filmmaker audiences recognize, like James Cameron's Avatar. 

A big spot during this Sunday's Super Bowl festivities is no doubt a crucial part of Disney's plan to bombard the world with John Carter in the weeks leading up to its actual release.  In order to build awareness of a promotional tool designed to build awareness, the studio has released a tease of the Super Bowl TV spot into the online wilds.

After dropping the film's action-packed trailer earlier this week, Disney has now unveiled three banners for the science fiction epic John Carter, an adventure that follows the eponymous Civil War soldier who wakes up on the surface of Mars, where he discovers alien species, warring civilizations, and an ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound.  These banners showcase Taylor Kitsch as Carter, as well as a bunch of those aliens, including Tars Tarkas, a Thark played by Willem Dafoe via motion capture, Carter's bulldog-looking sidekick Woola, and a pair of bellowing White Apes.  Also, if you squint, you can see Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris, who is the title character in Edgar Rice Burroughs' original Barsoom novel A Princess of Mars, first published in 1917.

Slowly but surely, Disney is unveiling more of Mars in John Carter, as the studio has released six official new images from the event-movie adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars.  Things have been pretty quiet on the promotional front for the last several months, but last week a still featuring a fearsome white ape made its way online, and now we've got a gaggle of images.  These include several looks at Taylor Kitsch of Friday Night Lights and X-Men Origins: Wolverine as the thoroughly topless titular Earthling transported to Barsoom, as Mars in known to inhabitants.  Also included are peeks at some fancy airships, Carter's pudgy little sidekick Woola, and Tars Tarka, a Martian native from the race of Tharks.  Behold, all this red planet-y goodness!

Since Disney dropped a very teasing teaser trailer way back in July, we haven't heard or seen too much of John Carter, the studio's big budget adaptation of A Princess of Mars, the first novel in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom epic, first published almost a century ago.  That trailer was very much about setting up a mood and plenty of big, sci-fi visuals, but the story remained unexamined.  Today, as if to remind us that John Carter is indeed less than four months away, Disney has released a new image from the film, featuring Taylor Kitsch as the title character and a giant, six-limbed White Ape about to crush his puny human ass. 

An international trailer released last week offered our first look at Disney's John Carter, an epic adaptation of A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs.  That teaser was all mood big, sweeping visuals, with a nod to introducing Taylor Kitsch as the title character and messianic overtones aplenty.  Beyond that, though, the trailer paid no mind to selling the film conceptually; in fact, since the title was shortened from John Carter of Mars, if you're unfamiliar with Burroughs' novels, you'd probably have no idea that the film takes place on Mars.  The domestic teaser is pretty much identical, with just a few shots added in.  Crucially, though, one of these shots gives our first reasonably-close look at one of the Martian species being created through motion capture.