John Carter Trailer is Out!

As a lifetime fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs, I have waited DECADES for this movie to finally get made. It has been in active development since at least 1990 — went from Cynergi to Paramount to Disney and at one point had Robert Rodriguez attached to direct–in the end it’s Andrew Stanton and it looks like he’s doing a great job. Trust me — it will be big……will be released in March 2012

Here is a link to an article I wrote for the main Burroughs fansite entitled: Heady Days for ERB Fans – Avatar, Burroughs, and John Carter of Mars.

I think they were smart to change the title to simply “John Carter” — the title of the original book (actually it was a magazine serial written 100 years ago in 1911 by Burroughs, who is better known for his “Tarzan of the Apes” series) was “Under the Moons of Mars”, then was first published as a book under the title “A Princess of Mars”.   Burroughs’ Mars was as vividly evoked as Tolkien’s Middle Earth — the races, the cultures, history, and geography were such that readers like me were able to draw a map of “Barsoom” with as much accuracy as I could draw a map of the Earth.   It’s a grand hero-tale — but with more heart and substance than things like Conan, or Thor.  There’s plenty of swords, no sorcery, magnificent creatures and an epic love story set against the backdrop of a dying planet kept alive by an atmosphere factory…….James Cameron is on record as saying he had the books of Burroughs in mind when he made Avatar ……..