Trivia of John Carter of Mars (2012)
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Trivia of John Carter of Mars
- In 2004 - when the project was still known as "A Princess of Mars" after the book on which it's based - 'Robert Rodriguez (I)' (qv) had originally been signed and announced as director and had begun pre-production early that year (it would have been his largest project to date with starting budget reported at $100 million). Rodriguez' most notable contribution was to hire fantasy painter 'Frank Frazetta' (qv) (whose most acclaimed works have included striking illustrations of 'Edgar Rice Burroughs' (qv) novels, most notably the "John Carter on Mars" books) as production designer on the film. However, when Rodriguez resigned from the Directors' Guild of America (DGA) the same year (due to a dispute over his film _Sin City (2005)_ (qv)), Paramount was forced to replace him. The studio has a long-standing arrangement with the DGA in which only the organization's members may direct Paramount films. He was replaced with director 'Kerry Conran' (qv), who had just finished _Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)_ (qv). In 2005, Conran left the project and was replaced by 'Jon Favreau' (qv) just before the release of Favreau's movie _Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005)_ (qv).- "A Princess of Mars" was originally published as "Under the Moons of Mars" by Norman Bean (Edgar Rice Burroughs' pseudonym) in The All-Story (six pulp magazine issues February - July, 1912). Burroughs was originally afraid that he might be ridiculed for writing such a tale, so he decided to use a pen name. The pseudonym was supposed to be a pun "Normal Bean" (as in "I'm a normal bean") to reassure people, but the man who typeset the text thought it was a mistake, so he changed it to "Norman".
- 'Jon Favreau' (qv) was on-board to direct the film until around August 2006. At this time Paramount chose not to renew the film rights, preferring to focus on _Star Trek (2009)_ (qv), while Favreau left to work on _Iron Man (2008)_ (qv). In January 2007 Disney regained the rights (they had rights to film the story previously: in the 1980s with director 'John McTiernan (I)' (qv)), and enlisted 'Andrew Stanton (I)' (qv) from Pixar to direct.
- Actors 'Jon Hamm' (qv) to 'Josh Duhamel' (qv) were both considered for the leading role in this movie.
- Probably holds the record for having the longest period of "development hell" for any movie, at 79 years. The film entered development hell when preproduction first started for it in 1931, when 'Robert Clampett' (qv) (director of 'Looney Tunes') approached 'Edgar Rice Burroughs' (qv), the author of 'John Carter', to make an animated feature out of the first book in the series (which is what this film is also an adaptation of). Had plans gone through, 'John Carter' would have become the first animated feature the world had seen, beating Disney's _Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)_ (qv). The film finally left development hell in 2010 when filming officially started in January of that year in London.
