Hey Men and Women of Action -

I am writing as a pretty massive fan of John Carter of Mars, the series of sci-fi fantasy written by Edgar Rice Burroughs in the early 1900s.

The series introduces us to a Civil War veteran, John Carter, who mysteriously travels to Mars where he encounters fabulous adventure, heart stopping creatures, discovers special abilities, and meets the most beautiful woman in all the galaxy.  John Carter of Mars is just one of the all time great pulp science fiction works.  And without those stories, we would not know the vast majority of the fantasy and science fiction that we enjoy today.

And that fact is something that has been troubling me about the upcoming big budget, Disney-Produced, Andrew Stanton-Directed John Carter.  The film obviously has some visual similarities to a Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, or even more current big budget films like Clash of the Titans.  But I’m worried that the average viewer will see the advertisements and think the story looks derivative, where in reality John Carter is the Grandfather of some of our most treasured adventures, all the way down to even Superman himself.

Well it finally seems like Disney is catching on to this and an awesome new video has been released exploring the mythology of John Carter and his place in literary history.  It is brief, but it highlights the heritage of the story and gives some fun glimpses in to the film.  Check it out:

The jury is obviously still out on whether this film catches on, successfully captures the world of John Carter, or brings about world peace.

But I really hope the film succeeds and I’m daring to believe that it will be fantastic as the source material deserves a fantastic film to showcase it.

Disney needs to get moving to promote this a little bit better if it wants to huge hit. And I hope this video and the positive word of mouth that is spreading around bring the film in to the black.

As a quick note, just because I really personally hope to see the film succeed, I want to direct you over to Ain’t It Cool where Harry Knowles just did a MASSIVE interview with Director Andrew Stanton.

Hat Tip: Movies.com / Aint It Cool News

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