CNN: Fans at John Carter Files create their own John Carter trailer

From Henry Hanks, CNN: Fanmade trailers are certainly nothing new on Youtube and elsewhere online. And yet, Michael Sellers’ and Mark Linthicum’s home-grown trailer for the upcoming “John Carter” movie is one that has gone viral, with well over 100,000 page views. Viewers comment that Sellers and Linthicum’s edit should be used instead of the official trailer.

Even the official “John Carter” director took notice of the video.

Sellers, a Burbank, California, resident who discovered “John Carter” at age 11, and runs the fansite The John Carter Files – all about the classic Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, and especially the upcoming March 9 release of the film adaptation – spoke with CNN Geek Out about what makes fans want to improve on official trailers in such a way.

CNN Geek Out: What did you hope to accomplish with this video?

Sellers: It started out as a form of DIY therapy – we had been watching the Super Bowl in excited anticipation of seeing the “John Carter” TV spot. We were disappointed by the spot that played in the game and kind of a had a slightly boozy, post-Super Bowl moment of inspiration in which we said, basically: “Come on, we can do better than that!”

So we downloaded all the spots and trailers that were available online and cut a new one from all the old clips. When we started cutting it we were just doing it for fun but by the time we were done we knew it played well and might help if anyone saw it. At that point we started thinking, you know, if we could just get this out there and people could see it – who knows, it might have a positive effect?

We realized the most likely outcome is that it would just be seen by a very few people so we didn’t have major delusions – but we thought, every little bit helps, every person who decides to see the movie and likes it and talks about it adds to the possibility that it’s a success.