Hey folks, Harry here with more on the newly in motion JOHN CARTER OF MARS movie at Paramount. Friday I got a call from Jim Jacks, the producer (alongside Sean Daniel) on what is being envisioned as the key franchise of choice at PARAMOUNT.

Jim was calling to catch up with me, talk about the project and put down a few fears that fans were expressing in Talk Backs on the original article.

First, he doesn't really know where the ROCK rumor got started, but not only did I have it, but when Variety called him to ask about the project out of the blue they had the same information. I do know where it started, and suffice to say sometimes there are sourgrapes in this business.

Contrary to that rumor, Dwayne Johnson... THE ROCK will not be John Carter. Jim Jacks noted that John Carter is a Southern Civil War officer that after the war decided to set out to find and make his fortune. That doesn't really make sense for Dwayne to play, however Jim did tell me that he is working with Dwayne on a Western-update project with him that he is quite excited about.

He mentioned being intrigued by the ideas of Matthew McConaughey -- "You know we produced his first film, DAZED AND CONFUSED"-- and Hugh Jackman -- "I could really see him playing a southern Civil War type" -- in the John Carter role, he loved the idea of Kurt Russell, but felt he was a bit old for the character, as this will be a franchise. He's very adamant about casting a manly man in the role and not some actor with boyish features. Someone more rough and tumble. Personally I like the TALK BACK suggestion of Mark Dacascos!

Beginning this week they'll be talking to screenwriters to get started on the script, meeting with the top established guys like Frank Darabont and talking to some of the new hot talent like Jeff Vintar, whose I, ROBOT spec is Alex Proyas' next opus over at Fox. However, what he really wants is someone that is in love with the John Carter stories, someone passionate about adapting those books into films. He wants accurate adaptations, because everything he wants in the films is right there.

As for directors, he's going to be meeting with folks like Sam Raimi, whom he produced A SIMPLE PLAN and THE GIFT for... as well as folks like Spielberg and so on. He wants this to be taken as seriously as the LORD OF THE RINGS films were made. That sort of attention to detail. They have a huge budget approved at Paramount and he wants it to end up on screen.

Jim said that this all started when Sherry Lansing at Paramount was talking with him about how much she loved the films he was producing for her like A SIMPLE PLAN and THE GIFT, but that she really wanted to do something big with him at Paramount. And he blurted out JOHN CARTER OF MARS. The rights were tough to get as some other producers were hot and heavy for them as well, especially after the success of LORD OF THE RINGS. But Jim had read the books as a boy and had his parents ship him his paperback editions from their home so he could show them to the Burroughs Estate folks at their meeting. Over the course of our conversation he was quite enthusiastic about the project and knew the material front and back.

He said that these are going to be very different films from THE MUMMY series that he produced over at UNIVERSAL. These will feel very different from that. From the sound of what he was saying... They literally want to make an absolutely faithful adaptation of PRINCESS OF MARS and they'd like to start shooting sometime next year.

I've dreamt pretty much my whole adult life of seeing the JOHN CARTER OF MARS series done perfect on the big screen. Am I about to get that wish? I don't know, but I will tell you this, I'm going to be all over this project. You'll probably get really sick of me talking about it, but I'm excited folks. A period science fiction epic is exactly what I lust after. And Jim Jacks certainly seems to be excited to deliver that. We'll see.

Here's some fan art that Dan Land composited up of Hugh Jackman as John Carter... Can you see it?