January 2006
Jon Favreau has talked about directing Paramount's upcoming fantasy adventure "John Carter of Mars".
"It was written by Edgar Rice Burroughs close to a hundred years ago," said Favreau.
"It’s actually been a bit of a creative well spring that influenced 'Star Wars' a great deal ... and 'Superman'...
"Basically any science fiction goes back to the grandfather, which is 'John Carter'.''It’s about a civil war veteran – a cavalry captain – who finds himself transported to Mars and finds himself in the nexus of all these warring tribes on this dying planet ..."
Fall 2005
Paramount has hired director Jon Favreau to helm "JOHN CARTER OF MARS", the film adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs pulp magazine series.
Premise focuses on Civil War veteran 'John Carter', whose retreat into a cave to avoid capture by Apache Indians takes an otherworldly turn as he's transported via time portal to the planet of 'Barsoom' (Mars) where he is taken prisoner by 12-foot-tall Martians, meets the princess of his dreams, becomes a king, raises Martian rug-rats and lives happily ever after.
Author Burroughs wrote 11 volumes of Carter's adventures and Paramount is looking forward to launching a "STAR WARS" type franchise.
Ehren Kruger is developing a screenplay by Mark Protosevich.
***
Amazing Stories - March 1941 ...
"... John Carter is the most famous space traveler ever to spring from the pages of science fiction. Twenty years ago, when he first staggered into a weird cave in the Arizona desert and experienced what seemed to him to be death, he was "born" as the most romantic, swashbuckling Martian hero of all time.
In that weird cavern filled with eerie whispers and ghostly manifestations, John Carter experienced a strange paralysis. With a mighty effort of will he snapped the invisible bonds that bound him and leaped to his feet--to stand as naked as the day he was born beside his own "dead" body. And in a few moments he stood staring up at the stars--at Mars, winking redly on the horizon. A mighty longing shook him.
Then, in an unthinkable moment of utter cold, he spanned the gulf, and found himself lying in hot sunshine on the deserts of Mars.
Since that day, he has returned many times to tell Edgar Rice Burroughs of his adventures.
You have just read the latest--and there'll be more! ..."
