AP Article Quotes Kitsch on John Carter, Battleship: “I’m not tied to these things for the next 10 years.”
This is an AP article that is making the rounds and is stirring up passions among fans of John Carter due to Taylor Kitsch’s comments which some have interpreted to mean that he is no longer under contract to do sequels of John Carter. I don’t read it that way and I’m 99.9% that Disney hasn’t released anyone from the contractual obligations for sequels, just like they haven’t released the IP back to ERB Inc, and won’t do so until the deal expires. It all falls into the “never say never” category when you don’t have to say never.
Anyway, there is the article.
Kitsch moves on from pair of flops to Savages
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Taylor Kitsch struck out twice this year in the failed films “John Carter” and “Battleship,” spoiling the “Friday Night Lights” actor’s hopes to leap from TV to big-screen star.
Now, Kitsch has a third time at bat with Oliver Stone’s drug-war thriller “Savages,” opening Friday.
While the actor regrets the two previous movies flopped, he’s actually a bit relieved that he can take jobs as they come without having to work around sequel schedules had those films developed into franchises.
“Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise that it died, and I’m not tied to these things for the next 10 years,” said Kitsch, 31. “I’m free to do whatever I want now. If I want to do something in January, February, March, April, I don’t have to go through two studios to be greenlit.”
Still, Kitsch started the year with the prospect of two studio blockbusters that could have given him steady work for years to come in the continuing adventures of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Mars hero Carter and in more tales inspired by the board game “Battleship.”
5 comments
Yes, Savages, thank you. My brain got messed up with Taylor’s next movie, Lone Survivor, which is now in pre-production. Seems like he’s really on a roll right now.
Diana I haven’t seen the Charlie Rose interview but yeah it sounds like Kitsch will be having to deal with this for a long time to come. I do think its unfair that he’s the one their mostly targeting because he wasn’t the major factor in John Carter or Battleship failing. And Travolta is a good example of an actor who has had ups and downs in his career yet still seems to bounce back. I guess the good thing is so far most of the reviews for Savages (it’s not Survivors) have been pretty good and KItsch is getting good notices. So I think he will come out fine in the end, even if he doesn’t become the next big movie star.
MCR, I think you could be right about him maybe getting tired of having to defend John Carter and Battleship. Did anyone see the Charlie Rose show last night or this afternoon. He had Oliver Stone, Taylor Kitsch and others from the movie Survivors in a round table discussion. They got around to talking about how any movie is a risk when it’s released, and Charlie said to Taylor that he had been in a couple of movies that hadn’t done well. Taylor seemed a bit speechless and started to say something like that depended, then Charlie said John Carter? it underperformed. So they agreed that was fair. So it seems like that is going to keep coming up for a long time. But then John Travolta said he had had his share of films that didn’t do well, too, so you just have to keep pushing forward and not let those things bother you.
I’ll be Mr. Nice Contrarian here. Kitsch does say in the interview he doesn’t regret doing either John Carter and Battleship and so far he’s proven to be a nice guy to the fans. I even liked him in the JC when he was allowed to get beyond the “damaged goods” scenes and was looking forward to him in a sequel (with another director of course). The only thing about this statement is maybe he’s gotten tired of the press hounding about this. Back when Battleship opened he was spending it seem most of his interview time defending John Carter and now he’s having to defend two movies that “flopped.” To an actor that has to be wearying that the press keeps obsessing over this and he probably just wants to move on from it and have them focus more on his acting abilties, not the box office.
The way I read it he is simply saying that for now he has the freedom to pick his work and build up his credits in a variety of projects while he has momentum going instead of having to split his time. I didn’t feel like he was saying he would not do another John Carter. This seems like another interview some time back where fans thought he was saying he wouldn’t do any more JC films and he had to reassure everyone that was not the case.