Ambitious and promising, “John Carter” did not experience a chaotic production like many cursed films. But Disney did not believe in the success of Andrew Stanton’s space opera, partly torpedoed by a disastrous marketing campaign.
John Carter: the space opera by Andrew Stanton
In 2012, after countless adaptations around Tarzan, other emblematic characters created by the writer Edgar Rice Burroughs arrive in the cinema. With John Carter director Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, WALL-E) attacks the Mars cycle by transposing the first pane to the screen, A princess from Mars after many attempts since its publication in 1912.
In this Disney-produced blockbuster, a disillusioned and lonely former Southern Civil War officer, John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), finds himself blasted to Mars after discovering a secret passageway between Earth and the planet. On the latter, which is actually called Barsoom, the itinerant city of Zodanga is ravaging nations one after the other. The person responsible for these massacres, Sab Than (Dominic West), is controlled by the Therns, monks with supernatural powers claiming to act in the name of the goddess Issus.
Captured by the Tharks, a Martian people, John Carter subsequently enjoys the protection of their king Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe). From the desert, they witness a clash between several ships, and Carter, able to make extraordinary leaps due to a weaker gravity, manages to save Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). The princess of Helium, the only city to resist Zodanga, fled to avoid a forced marriage with Sab Than in order to guarantee peace. With the help of the earthling and the Tharks, the princess of Mars will try to bring down the tyrant.
The first (and last) part of the Mars cycle
Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Thomas Haden Church, Ciarán Hinds, James Purefoy, and Bryan Cranston complete the cast of John Carter. Andrew Stanton thinks of the film as the first opus of a trilogy, to be followed by the adaptations of the novels The Gods of Mars and The Warlords of Mars. Projects were aborted due to the failure of the blockbuster at the box office. For an estimated budget of over $300 million the feature film only brings in 284 worldwide when released.
On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of John Carter, The Wrap attempted to analyze the reasons for this oven by interviewing several members of the production, including director Andrew Stanton, co-screenwriter Michael Chabon, cinematographer Dan Mindel, and actress Lynn Collins. In particular, the team confided in the ideal pre-production of the project.
While he has already worked in the 90s on a script called The Martian AgentMichael Chabon is offered to write the screenplay alongside Andrew Stanton and his sidekick Mark Andrews, another talent from Pixar to whom we owe, among others Rebel. The three artists are passionate about the mythology created by Edgar Rice Burroughs and the development of the story is done with a true love for the source material.
An alchemy between the two main actors
Then comes the casting phase. Since he spotted it in the series Friday Night Lights, Andrew Stanton believes that Taylor Kitsch could be the perfect interpreter of John Carter. He stands firm against the solicitations of Tom Cruise, very interested in the role. During the tests, the chemistry between the young actor and Lynn Collins is obvious. The actress, who has already given the reply to her future partner in X-Men Origins: Wolverineremember :
Taylor and I have always had incredible chemistry. It was inevitable that we would have a chance to really explore it.
Again, Andrew Stanton is planning for the long term, believing that their relationship could grow on screen over the years.
Bad filming choice
Things start to get complicated when filming begins at Longcross Studios, west London, in 2010. A Disney choice that cinematographer Dan Mindel bitterly regrets he who had considered being able to shoot in natural conditions from the outset, and more precisely in the Four Corners region, in the south-west of the United States:
I think it was a huge mistake, trying to make money by arranging the production in England.
He adds :
When a ship is supposed to be flying in the open in broad daylight while you’re shooting in a studio in the dead of winter in the UK, it’s impossible to make these things part of a real environment.
