Speaking to Jim Sulio, president of Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., the report raised the question of how impactful John Carter was on the science fiction genre.
"He's referred to as the grandfather of science fiction, and it's because that story, 'The Princess of Mars' and the following books, had a seminal impact on the creation of 'Superman’ – the concept of lower gravity allowing him to have super-strength and being able to fly, which is why Superman had to come from a different planet, Krypton," says Sulio. "It's all based on what Mr. Burroughs created in everyone's mind with a different gravity on a smaller planet. Then of course 'Star Wars' was significantly drawn on from Mr. Burroughs, including the landscapes and the creatures and all those things. I think that someone used the term that George Lucas ‘plundered’ the 'Mars' story to create 'Star Wars’ – and with attribution: Lucas agreed that a lot of his ideas came from the 'Mars' books of Edgar Rice Burroughs. And then with 'Avatar,' James Cameron was quoted quite a few times about, over a 15-year period as he thought about this movie, the influences that Mr. Burroughs 'Mars' books had on him. So you're right: there's quite a bit of history that shows how many other beautiful and magical stories are created by the 'Mars' books."
As to the Tarzan projects in development, he offers, "The first one will be a 'Tarzan' animation film, done like the 'Constantin' films, and that'll be in March of 2013. That's not that far away now and that'll be the first animation in a number of years. Then also Warner Brothers has an option and has in development a live-action 'Tarzan' film. The script has been written by Craig Brewer and Adam Cozad, and I think they're combining them into one film. That's in development. I don't know if we'll see it in 2013, '14 or '15, but it's going to be done and we're looking forward to that."
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