Apparently Andrew Stanton has confirmed that he is writing John Carter of Mars for Pixar.
Of course, the promise of a Barsoom movie goes way, way back:
In 1931, the first documented attempt was made by animation pioneer Bob Clampett. It was to be his first independent project since making a name for himself as an animator at Warner Bros. Clampett approached Edgar Rice Burroughs himself about making an animated version of the books Clampett adored. To the animator’s pleasant surprise, Burroughs was enthusiastic about the idea of an animated film as he was eager to give his characters wider exposure. (The Mars books had won a reasonable level of success on their own, but nowhere near the author’s Tarzan book series.) Burroughs’ son, Jack Burroughs, recently-graduated from college, was fascinated by Clampett’s unique animation style. He and the animator collaborated in creating an extensive cachet of notes, sketches, and models–that would be the film’s blueprints–and a reel of test footage. All the while, Burroughs the Author sold the film rights to Metro Goldwyn Mayer, the studio that was already producing the Tarzan film series starring Johnny Weismuller.The project was moving ahead expeditiously, until 1935. The executives at M.G.M soon clashed with Clampett and the two Burroughs men over the direction in which to take the film: the creators wanted a serious sci-fi adventure tale; the execs wanted a slapstick comedy with a swashbuckling hero. Eventually, the studio put an end to the entire project, citing it as “too expensive”. Had it been created, the first in a series of short films would have debuted in 1936.
When Clampett toured colleges and universities in the late 1970s, he would screen test footage he had co-created with Jack Burroughs. The audience reaction was always ecstatic.
Take a look:
Ray Harryhausen also gave it a go in the early 1960s.
I can remember Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott talking in the late 1990s about their go at it:
The project came the closest to fruition in the late 1980s when the film rights were acquired by the Touchstone Pictures division of The Walt Disney Company. To help off-set unforeseeable costs, Carolco Pictures heads Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna were brought on as producers. For the first time since Bob Clampett was let go from the project, an official director was announced in 1988: John McTiernan, fresh off the back-to-back successes of Predator and Die Hard. McTiernan hired then up-and-coming screenwriters Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott to write the screenplay, while production designer William Stout was brought on board to create the unique look of the film. Both McTiernan and Stout have gone on record as saying that Tom Cruise was in talks to play John Carter (there are long-persistent rumours that Julia Roberts was in talks to play Carter’s love interest, Dejah Thoris, but there is little evidence to substantiate this.)However, the project was once again marred by its sheer scale and rising budget. Furthermore, McTiernan was unhappy with the state of cinematic special effects at the time, feeling they needed to advance to achieve the appropriate effect needed for the landscape of Barsoom. The growing budget is one of many factors that contributed to the eventual bankruptcy of Carolco Pictures.
During the 1990s, Disney/Touchstone made several attempts to get the project up and running again, but to no avail. Sometime after, the rights expired.
That’s when I lost track of things, but it obviously kept bouncing around:
In 2002, the rights were acquired by Paramount Pictures, which originally planned to release the film under the title A Princess of Mars. It was changed during development to John Carter of Mars. Although this title has the same name as Burroughs’s final book in the Barsoom series, the content was to be based on several Carter novels. If the film was successful, Paramount made it known sequels were likely as the studio wanted to make it into a franchise.The film was to be produced by Alphaville Productions partners Sean Daniel and Jim Jacks. The script was written by Mark Protosevich and rewritten by Ehren Kruger. No actors were attached to the project.
In 2004 it was announced that Robert Rodriguez would direct from a screenplay by Mark Protosevich. Soon after, Rodriguez’ friend, webmaster, and life-long fan of the books, Harry Knowles, was named as a co-producer with Daniel and Jacks. It would have been Rodriguez’s largest project with a reported starting budget of $100 million. Rodriguez even went so far as to hire as production designer one of his favorite painters, fantasy artist Frank Frazetta (whose commissioned painting have graced many covers of Edgar Rice Burroughs books, particularly the Mars). However, later that year Rodriguez got into a dispute with the Directors Guild of America (DGA) over the credits of his movie Sin City, forcing him to resign from the guild. As a result, he was forced to relinquish the director’s chair on what had just been re-named John Carter of Mars, the producers having an agreement with the DGA only to work with guild members.
Soon after, Kerry Conran, director of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, was named as the new director. In 2005, Conran left the project for reasons that are unclear. As of October of that year, Jon Favreau was scheduled to direct the film; subsequently, it was said to be helmed by Brad Bird of Pixar fame. Finally, in 2006, Paramount decided not to renew their option on the work, determining to make a new Star Trek film instead.
Rodriguez + $100 million + Frazetta = Wow! I won’t sneeze at Pixar though.