John Carter: A Just Fight, and a good cause

Edgar Rice Burroughs

from StevenEGordon.blogspot.com — by Steve Gordon

A just fight…

 …and a good cause.
I know it’s been quite awhile since I last blogged and I will blog again to bring you all up to date a little later, but in the meantime this seemed somewhat time sensitive….As many of you know (or have surmised by now) I’ve been an Edgar Rice Burroughs fan since I just about started reading. One of my favorite series of his was the John Carter of Marsseries. This was even before I started to see Frazetta’s wonderful and sensual depictions of the characters in these books. I first started to collect the books with the Abbett covers.
It wasn’t just the images that captivated me but the excitement and swashbuckling derring-do as well as the romance. If asked I’d have to say that ERB’s sense of right, wrong and romance had a lot to do with shaping my way of thinking and treating women.
Over the years I’d tried my hand at drawing these wonderful characters and after entering the world of animation there always seemed to be plenty of opportunities to talk about the possibility of working on a feature based on A Princess of Mars. At one point I even worked out a Thoat run cycle that (if I recall right) was pretty decent and towards the end of production on Fire & Ice, Ralph Bakshi said he was in discussions with ERB, Inc. about producing a John Carter of Mars feature. Ralph said he wasn’t interested in directing it (just producing it) so he approached me and another animator (my friend, Bruce Woodside) about directing on it. The budget was going to be minuscule and it all hardly seemed feasible. Thankfully, in retrospect, it all fell through for one reason or another. Even though it would’ve been exciting to do this (small budget or not), I suspect it would’ve been a major disaster and disappointment to ERB fans – including myself.

4 comments

  • I’ve seen JC twice the first week and once a week since. All in 3d IMAX! I was quite pleased to see that it will remain for at least one more week (overlapping the Japan opening) at the IMAX so I can see it one last time in all its 3D glory. I am very interested how Stanton is going to reconcile all the cool changes that his team made to the book storyline. I absolutely loved all the changes that they made and I just wish to see more. I want to see the plant men and all the other kingdoms come to life.
    Why can’t we take up a collection to pre-fund (bribe them to do) the sequel? Money always seem to be the most persuasive tool- it might just do the trick. Think of it as pre-paying for your ticket. Setting up a non-profit is a pain but if we’d set up something a super-pac it might be a cake-walk to avoid tax issues.

    JCE

  • “…it gets so much right that the minor flaws are completely overwhelmed and not even worth dwelling on in my opinion. The most important part is they got the TONE right. The feel of a pulp adventure with a sense of wonderment and romance. They also got the most difficult part right: Dejah Thoris.”

    This is what I believe, too. This film could have been a disaster, but it got the heart — the feel — right. I am so thankful.

    And (to paraphrase another post I saw) Lynn Collins IS Dejah Thoris! Her portrayal of Dejah was super fantastic! I loved her tatts — I loved everything about her.

  • For the record, the actress name is Lynn Collins, not Harris. Also I have noted else where this movie plays surprisingly well with women. At it’s heart it is an intergalactic love story set against a fantastic adventure. Women can see this and relate to this because Lynn Collins does a terrific job with this character. I know I’m staring to sound like a broken record, but Disney has to get their heads out iof their asses and start featuring her in any future marketing.

Leave a Reply