Cool News
Two Conrans visit the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate! JOHN CARTER OF MARS preproduction underway'!'
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here... You know, it's annoying sometimes to work with Harry. Here he has one of the coolest Fantasy series ever created under his thumb and he refuses to give me a peek. Matter of fact, he's been so tight-lipped on this movie that I've had to sit back and watch other sites break JOHN CARTER OF MARS scoops. How embarrassing! Plus he's barred me from set, but that's just because I went to Skull Island without him, so I guess that doesn't have much bearing on this aspect.
I did dig up this piece, though. Damn his eyes, I got something! It ain't much, but it shows the level of respect Kerry and Kevin Conran have for the original estate and material, which is crucial in a story this epic. To know and love all aspects of the story can be the very thing to keep the film from sliding too far in the wrong direction. The below also seems to indicate that JOHN CARTER OF MARS is officially, actively beginning its preproduction. The wheels are turning, squirts! I, for one, can't wait!
Below you'll find a bit of info from the good people at ERBzine.comdetailing the Conrans' visit to the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate and being shown some awfully cool stuff! I want that sword!!! Anyway, read on, squirts, and enjoy!
ERBzine News Today:
Conran and Paramount Team Visit ERB, Inc. Tarzana Offices Tarzana, CA ~
Thursday, December 2, 2004
Director Kerry Conran, along with brother Kevin and a team of
production personnel, met with Danton Burroughs at the Edgar Rice
Burroughs, Inc. offices in Tarzana today, to discuss the Paramount
John Carter of Mars film project.
Danton shared Edgar Rice Burroughs' vision for Barsoom adventures on
film, while longtime ERB fan and Hollywood writer Tracy Griffin added
his expertise to the discussions.
A plethora of Barsoom reference material was presented to the Conran
team: pulp magazines, comics, American and foreign editions of the
Mars series, the Library of Illustration volumes, Trendmaster and
other toys and memorabilia, games, fanzines, biographies and
bibliographies.
Artwork from a broad cross-section of Mars artists, old and new, was
also on display: St. John, Schoonover, Burroughs, Marsh, Frazetta,
Krenkel, Whelan, D'Achille, Boris, Jusko, Kubert, Kane, Yeates,
Stout, etc.
Adding to the uniqueness of this meeting was the showcasing of the
artistry of Danton's father, John Coleman Burroughs. This included
many of the materials JCB had created to serve as models for his John
Carter art projects: a full-scale hand-carved Martian sword, a thark
head, a large model of a thoat with moveable parts, and photographs
of wife Jane Ralston posing in full Dejah Thoris costume.
Danton followed this up by bringing out rare samples of his father's
Martian art, which included original panels from the John Carter of
Mars Sunday pages, art from the ERB Mars novels, samples from the
JCB/Clampett animation project, as well as stacks of big little books
and comics containing JCB Mars art.
Most of these reference materials are also displayed on the
JohnColemanBurroughs.com and ERBzine.com Websites which makes for
convenient future reference.
ERB fans will be excited over the news that the long-overdue film
adaptation of the Burroughs Mars series is about to be realized. All
parties involved are committed to making this production a big-budget
blockbuster that is true to the spirit of the original novels.
Director Kerry Conran is a dedicated fan of classic science fiction,
as he showed in his recent "Sky Captain and the World of
Tomorrow," and in his choice of Ehren Kruger as scriptwriter for the
project. Conran is also a master of the spectacular computer graphics
needed for creating the fantasy alien world of Barsoom.
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+ Expand All
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Get em!
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I don't know......Sky Captain wasn't THAT bad. It just had a really boring script. The much vaunted production values and effects ended up looking very cartoonish and kinda fake. THat's not necessarily a deal killer with me, but when you combine it with the story from Dullsville, it's not giving me a lot to root for. The guy has potential, but unless he can get ahold of a good scripter, I fear it will be more of the same.
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'Sky Captain' - although beautifully designed - was dreadful. Terrible. Shit. Unengaing. Hell, 'Raiders' tapped into the old serials design ethic and feel but that actually had a decent script, 'Sky captain' was so unengaging! I don't hold much hope for 'John Carter of Mars' either. Conran can produce a stunningly designed world - if only he could get rid of the actors - because he can't direct to save his life.
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I hope not. "Sky Captain" was merely a reimagining of the classic serial, bad story and all. I respect Conran's love of the era and the fantastic visuals he has updated with computer tech, but based on his last film he's a flawed story teller. Many people at the screening I attended walked out on "Sky Captain", and I feel this new film will fail to draw from the mainstream too, due to a lack of story. Perhaps Conran and team simply enjoy spending lots of money to please a minority of fim-goers?
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Dec 07, 2004 1:10:58 AM CST
THIS ARTICLE shows how hypocritical this site is! Come on, for y
by grabthars_hammer
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... and they are still going ahead with this? Great news but I'm very surprised. This is not how Hollywood normally works.
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Dec 07, 2004 2:26:17 AM CST
Harry's conflict of interest and the line drawn in the sand...
by triumph poops!
I have to say I agree with the others that have already started groaning openly that if Harry is going to be producer on PRINCESS OF MARS, he's in seriously deep danger of becoming a total hypocrite when it comes to this web site. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't whole POINT to this particular site to break news and even more so, get the "inside dirt" that the studios DON'T want us to see? If not, otherwise, it means we should just wait for the "official" release of news tidbits or stills at a generic place like EntertainmentTonight.com or wherever. Now, I can understand Harry not wanting to show everything from PRINCESS as it progresses, however the flip side of the coin would be that he's purposely HOLDING BACK news and photos and whatnot simply to appease Paramount as his new "boss." And if he's bowing to the suits on PRINCESS, you'd have to think the brass at Paramount likewise told him "And we'd better not see any leaks on WAR OF THE WORLDS either, buddy, or on any of our other films." At which point, you have to say what the hell? What's the point then? We already saw evidence of this in motion this past week when we logged on and were told "Hey, look! Inside photos from the set of WOTW!"...which were actually generic behind the scenes press photos that were already on Yahoo for all to see. And we were told "Hey, look! Art from the film!"...but that was the art that was available for all to see, see it was the same day the official WOTW site went up with it. Either way, I'm looking forward to PRINCESS as a longtime Burroughs fan, but going back to the core issue, Harry is really going to have to walk a strange tightrope on this one -- otherwise he will find himself with a lot of ire aimed at him over a hypocritical stance. Then again, maybe he doesn't give a shit. Hey, he's turned his web site into a chance to now be a producer on a major Hollywoood franchise/sci fi movie. So maybe as far as Harry's concerned, it's simply his acknowledgement of finally moving on to the things he's long dreamed of doing, so what does he care if anyone calls him names? He got what he wanted, so screw it...
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I don't care about Conran and I especially don't care about John Carter and the mars books.
As stories they lack refinment and intelligence and unless the script for this film is radically different this'll end up being the worst kind of hokey, caravan of courage kids movie we'll rent out in a long time.
Having Harry on board just seems to be a death knell for the objective quality of this project.
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Harry, you KNOW he was born for this part. Make him a star.
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Dec 07, 2004 5:41:33 AM CST
I've never been to mars, but I met jack carter once in an elevat
by dr.bulber
his body was about 2 foot high, and his head was about 4 feet from his chin to the top of his head. Very scary.
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It could happen.
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'Tis a nostalgic feeling to see such fine old repugnant nepotism at work again. De Laurentiis would be proud.
Of course, with the director of "Shyte Craptain and the Unwatchable Flop" behind the camera, nothing about the production really matters, since his "film" will more than likely make the best of WS Anderson and Uwe Boll seem entertaining.
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Dec 07, 2004 7:43:43 AM CST
what the hell is wrong with you people? harry has a job to do, a
by quamb
there are a lot of other aicn folk to do that. if you dont like harry, and dont like this site, then piss off. otherwise, shouldnt you be cheering him on to get some good movies on our screen?
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Hmmmm, a quick look at Box Office Mojo shows that the film roughly earned back its production budget in US Box Office. Now add in foreign gross and ancillary (DVD, cable sales, etc...) and I'm not quite sure how you can say that SKY CAPTAIN lost money...
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Hmmmm, a quick look at Box Office Mojo shows that the film roughly earned back its production budget in US Box Office. Now add in foreign gross and ancillary (DVD, cable sales, etc...) and I'm not quite sure how you can say that SKY CAPTAIN lost money...
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So are you people saying that Harry should just _give_ AICN scoops? Back in the beginnings of the site, did Harry and Mori just call up producers of films and get secret inside scoops? Of course not, what they did was get info from PAs and the like. I expect nothing more from these guys. I think Harry will be trying to play a little game of cat-and-mouse with his spies, trying to keep stuff secret while folks like Quint try to find out the truth behind the filming of these movies.
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Dec 07, 2004 8:55:41 AM CST
According to Box Office Mojo: "Sky Captain and the World of Tomo
by snarky
Domestic gross was $37.7M and overseas gross was $2.9M for a total gross of $40.7M. Call me crazy but that looks like a financial flop to me.
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Many sources have reported that SKY CAPTAIN's budget was inflated by up to twice its actual amount as Paramount didn't want people to think that thelow budget meant bad FX. (And they weren't bad, they were stylized. There's a difference...)
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I know there is no tie between box office and quality when it comes to films, but Sky Captain did horribly. For a film to be pimped as much as that film was and to be such an outright flop has to mean something. Look at it this way, everyone points to Batman and Robin as a flop, right? It grossed $107 million, roughly its budget. The old rule of thumb was a film had to make double (or was it triple) its budget to turn a profit domestically. As the budget increases that scales back a bit to maybe 1.5 times its budget. Sky Captain made an RCH under $38 million, almost making it to its $40 million dollar budget. Not the worst flop ever, but a flop never the less. As far as the studio overestimating the budget so people didn't think the SFX would suck sounds like studio spin. I can't believe that a major studio would entrust a huge project, possibly a franchise on a sophomore director with a less than stellar first outing and a producer with no experience. Of course the industry is constantly making boneheaded decisions.
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Dec 07, 2004 10:27:17 AM CST
Kerry had his chance, now move on! (Conran, not the Senator guy)
by funmazer
It was really cool they gave Kerry Conran a chance. It's not so cool (from a $ point) that it was for a very-limited audience film. It didn't take a genius to know from the get-go that no one but geeks would see it -even if it WAS good. Either way it bombed and he proved to be a not-good director (I actually found the dialog good, but the story hokey ) So, find some other Cal Arts grad and give them a chance now. Because with MARS you're just wasting money on a sub-sub-sub genre film that'll be maybe SLIGHTLY better directed but still one nobody will see.
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Wha-wha-What???!!!
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[tape rewinds] Get yuhr ahzz tu Mahz! [tape rewinds] Get yuhr ahzz tu Mahz!
[tape rewinds] Get yuhr ahzz tu Mahz! -
Is it me or was SKY CAPTAIN way too antiseptic? The John Carter movie needs to be gritty, sexy, and chaotic. Something along thelines of the first CONAN. It should be a 'hard' PG-13 at the very least. Nothing in SKY CAPTAIN shows the Conran can capture the brutal, two-fisted feel of the books. I liked Sky Captain the first time, but it totally fell apart on the second viewing.
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there's hardly any character development, and it's too ridiculous to be taken seriously. I never saw SKY CAPTAIN in theatres, because, well, it looked like crap
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Dude, if you're reading this (most likely not) you have a good skill set going for you in your visual style but you need to learn to WRITE more powerfully. The script was flat and thin on characterization. If you were trying to replicate a Saturday morning matinee feel from the 40's you succeeded. No hate for ya, you definetely got skills and it's always good to see one of the genre guys get a break...it's just that you need to forget about the visual crap for a while and learn story, characters and directing. I'm ranting because I love the whole John Carter Of Mars world and I don't want it to be screwed up.
Just a plea from a fellow genre fan. -
Fuck all you armchair directors out there. Conran has more talent in his left vas deferen than 99.9% of you. If you knew how Sky Captain was really made, why is was made, and for how much, you'd be amazed and excited to see a fresh director like him take on this film. Sky Captain was Conran's THX 1138, and in my opinion, was a whole lot better. I'm getting ready to see something new, not some special FX laden version of Conan.
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God, what a bunch of bitter, pathetic keyboard-punchers! They're only MOVIES, for Chrissakes! I just picture all of you people sitting there in front of your computer CRYING because they ruined your poor "potential franchises." Boo fucking hoo! Sky Captain was a goof; enjoy it or hate it, why waste the energy whining and crying about it now? Oh yeah--because you CAN'T WAIT to see your sworn enemy Kerry Conran bomb with his next film, OOOOOOHHH, that's gonna be so sweet! Your incredible, triumphant example of a human life is reaaaaally gonna be complete at that awesome moment! Hollywood'll be beating a path to your door begging you to help 'em out the next time they need REAL talent....yeah yeah yeah. They should really advertise hand lotion on this site...
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Tell me again why its good that they've hired EHREN-Scream3-Reindeer Games-Imposter-KRUGER to adapt this. WTF. What happened to the Protosevich draft you guys were all cheering about? I was gung-ho about Conran until the character interactions in SkyCaptain fell almost completely flat. THIS CAN'T HAPPEN TO MARS. Everything rests in the believability of the love story between Carter and Dejah, and in his friendships between the Martian races. I no longer look forward to this film, I merely dread it's coming and the ruination of what I've imagined for so long. Do what you can Harry, and Kerry--I'll be buying that SkyCaptain DVD (I still loved it, btw). The Doc is right, give it to Billy Crudup, but they're not gonna do it right anyhow. Call me crazy, but I would've liked to see Mel Gibson behind the camera on this one (you've all seen Braveheart).
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is inevitable.
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but I dug Sky Captain.
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Or something like that... Did anyone see Jude Law on SNL, they made fun of Sky Captain. It was pretty damn funny.
-Director "Now a fire ball is comming at you. Bite the fire ball"
-AirCommander "Why would I bite the fireball?"
-Director "When did you become a question machine?"
-Director "Ok he's either a giant ape or tiny robot, we're not sure yet but we'll fix that in post"
-AirCommander "This is the first time I've ever worked with green screen"
-Director "That's ok this is the first time I've worked with humans"
GFY
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Part of Conran's genius was getting the movie made at all. People don't seem to understand that Sky Captain was a very small budgeted INDEPENDENT genre movie that the Hollywood powers thought they could make a killing with. Conran wrote a story around what he wanted to do with the technology. There were no deep pocketed producers or a studio to go to for top writers for a polish or a rewrite. Just a bunch of nerds in a warehouse with off the shelf software. When Paramount came on board, it had already been shot. You can't compare this movie to a studio film with a wealth of resources. How can people not admire the result? I thought that it was extremely entertaining, beautiful, funny, and true to the bad films of that time. Doesn't anyone understand that? It's kind of like blaming David for not using a gun against Goliath. He used what he had.
At the end of the day, they had no idea how to market to the masses and the results were sad. It's probably true that the large scale audience wasn't even there, but you can't blame a director for brilliantly executing what he set out to do. And that's why he has been given the opportunity to do John Carter. I'm looking forward to seeing him collaborate with a writer on such rich source material and amazing us. -
interesting analogy. What hacker were you referring to? I know Kevin Mitnick never became a shill for a big software company, which is why he's still a hero.
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when i first heard about the project, i was excited and couldn't wait to see the movie. but when i actually saw it, i couldn't wait for the movie to finish quickly so i can head home and sleep bcoz it bored me to death!!!!
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Dec 08, 2004 12:09:46 AM CST
Haven't seen SCATWOT. But I liked the idea of Rodriguez better f
by wonkabar
His slyle would have been well suited to this subject me thinks. The fight scenes would been killer. Far-fetched shoot-outs, only with a huge budget and guys four arms and sords and shit. That knife-guy from Desperado would have made a bitch'n Barsoomian assassin too. Well I hope this Conran dude can pull it off. These books could be tens times sweeter than SW if done right, despite what some jerk-offs say this film could be epic. Sub-sub-sub genre? Eat me...that's what oh so many fuckheads said about LOTR. But like I said, it needs to be done right in order not to suck
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Avnet came on and supported Conran after one of his people brought him the 6 minute short. They got some foreign money to get things rolling, got Jude and Paltow, shot it and then had a bake off inviting all the heads fo the studios to watch some rough scenes. All the majors wanted it, it was just a matter of how much and when. Paramount wanted if for summer and the rest is history.
Verhoven had directed about 20 movies before Showgirls. What is your point? -
Why do you all have to be so cynical and viscious. You all sound like a bunch of jealous twits with no life. If, as a producer Harry wants to keep his project secretive, well its his baby and he can do as he pleases. Not to mention the fact that its a brilliant ploy that will only build the hype for this project.
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I love the source material, but it's so of it's time it will have to be updated a lot, so there goes the hardcore fan base. The director's coming of a huge flop, and yes, it was a huge flop. For a movie of it's type and profile to gross what it did is a massive failure. This was supposed to be the next Indiana Jones. Anyway, what its failure means is that the executives are going to have final say over evrything, because a guy coming off a big flop has about as much power as a freshman film school student, and when executives make films we get atrocities like Scooby-Doo. Also, this filmmaker seems to favor an antiseptic, overly stylized look, and LOTR proved audiences prefer their fantasy done with as much grit and realism as the material will bear. Couple that with the fact that it has one producer who's never made a film before, a screenwriter who's never written a good film (Arlington Road was barely average) and the future looks bleak for John Carter of Mars. Oh, and for anyone who is unfamiliar with the source material, like 99 percent of the world, the title John Carter of Mars is about as appealing as Gigli Part 2.
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Dec 08, 2004 11:34:35 AM CST
To those who complain that the "Mars" books lack intelligence an
by thewoodman
You're damn right... and guess what? THAT'S THE POINT. This is the finest of grimy, sweaty, pulpy, old-school sci-fi we're talking about, here. You want character development (whatever that means), go read "Wuthering Heights". John Carter's too busy fightin', fuckin', and saving planets to bother with that crap. DO NOT SCREW THIS MOVIE UP, HARRY! If it's good (even if the public doesn't know what to make of it) then all the charges of "hypocrisy", "sell-out" and "betrayal" will amount to nothing... but if it sucks (and even if it's "just okay", but seriously flawed), you're gonna catch a hundred different kinds of hell. Remember... we all understand that the cast can't run around completely naked for the whole movie... all we ask is that Dejah Thoris be topless! IS THAT SO BAD, AMERICA?!
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Since win is MONEY MADE the level of the QUALITY of a film or filmmaker, only since the the BLOCKBUSTER age. MANY Many great films quality wise failed at the boxoffice. And 1st films by future great filmmakers are not a true test of the quality of their future films, especially genre flicks, the makers of THX1138 (Lucas), Dark Star (Carpenter), Cheeseburger Film Sandwich (Dante),Duel (Speilberg), Within the Woods (Raimi), 660124 the story of the IBM card (DePalma) have all given us some pretty fukin good genre films... so lay off Kerry & Kevin they will be GREAT.
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Dec 08, 2004 3:41:03 PM CST
"all we ask is that Dejah Thoris be topless! IS THAT SO BAD, AME
by docpazuzu
Amen, brother.
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I held off on thanking AICN for seemingly having repaired the TB order, knowing deep down inside it was too good to be true...
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The only reason Harry's working on a film is because of this site. He owes it to us to update us constantly on the progress because otherwise he's admitting that what this site does, in giving movie geeks inside info, is wrong. Look at what Peter Jackson is doing with King Kong. He updates so often about the progress of his film, I feel like I'm a producer. Harry, either let us know in your own words what is going on. If not, then fine, I'll allow your secrecy to reign and I won't see the damn thing when it comes to theaters.
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Dec 08, 2004 4:09:01 PM CST
I thought Sky Captain was a mixed bag...it lost some steam after
by minderbinder
I think the real reason it didn't make more money was that people aren't willing to watch "black and "white" (I know it's not, but you know what I mean". If you put out Raiders in sepia, it would likely tank. And I agree that it's hard to call SK a flop not knowing how much it really cost, if it was really made for $40M, it did pretty well. I do agree that Conran could use some script help, hopefully this time he'll have a hand with that. And here's a really controversial statement: Polar Express should have been a greenscreen film like SK. It likely would have been a hit - you get the pretty scenery without the creepy fake humans. And it would have cost a third as much. You want to talk bomb, look at Polar Express, not Sky Captain.
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Uh that sword SUCKS- It almost looks like a freaing 2 handed sword. The swordwork of barsoom is "skillful" NOT Bludgeoning - there is no freaing plate- mail to break through for goodness sake!
----Also if they want to be "tryue to burroughs", they should toss all the Arytwork but Wheelans- he is the most accurate.
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Dec 08, 2004 5:22:19 PM CST
Battuta, you dumb motherfucker! LOTR was about as "gritty" asrer
by bill maher
I think Rose McGowan would be great as Deja. She certainly has the ass for it.
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You're wrong. He's not a sell-out, he's a whore. Get your shit straight.
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I loved the John Carter of Mars books when I read them back in junior high, but come on guys, the material is VERY dated. Most of the audience just won't get it. And if you're spending tens of millions of dollars on a big SF flick, you want as large an audience as possible, including women and people over 40. Also the suspension of disbelief will be hard to get over because we now know a lot of what Mars is really like, unlike the early 20th century when ERB wrote the books. Most people, outside of geeks, will scratch their heads and say, "But I thought there isn't life on Mars. That's not how Mars looks--see? (pointing at cover of Scientific American or National Geographic)." They COULD call the flick 'The John Carter Chronicles' or something and set it on some fictional planet. Just some random musings...
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I said, "as much grit and realism as the material will bear." No, LOTR isn't Goodfellas, but the use of hand-held camera work, the amount of grime on the faces and costumes helps sell the relative reality. It feels like a used universe people actually live in, rather than a cartoon, which is what Sky Captain was. Of course, this kind of well reasoned thinking would be beyond someone who's only response is to call someone a dumb twat.
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You can't compare an invented character like Sky Captain with a franchise like John Carter. Conran wrote and directed Sky Captain, and his brother invented the look of it and designed everything in it. Totally different is John Carter which, as the article hints, has an entire history that the Conrans RESPECT. Also Paramount has NEVER said officially how much it cost to make. But WHO CARES? Oh yeah, you idiots do. Well if you look close at ALL the countries showing Sky Captain you will see that is has made over FIFTY MILLION and counting. DVD sales will push that quite a bit higher. I'm not calling it a MEGA HIT, you jerks, just saying it's not the BIGGEST BOMB SINCE GIGLI that some of you think it is.
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A movie needs to illicite an emotion from it's audience. Whether it's love or hate is fine but indifference is movie death.
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