First of all, let me just say something. If you didn't know already, I'm huge fan of the Barsoom novels and its creator Edgar Rice Burroughs. These stories basically changed modern science fiction and there is no two ways around it. Without them, we wouldn't have Star Wars, the character of Superman, the highest grossing film ever called Avatar, and many, many other films, books and characters. Burroughs also created another widely known character, Tarzan, and did you actually know that John Carter was created before Tarzan? Burroughs' writing influenced some of the biggest authors like Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury. When it comes to John Carter, this a character created a 100 years ago, and there has been A LOT of attempts to bring the first novel, A Princess of Mars to the big screen. No one managed to do that. Until now. It's no secret that Disney's marketing for John Carter has been weird and random ever since the second trailer. The first teaser trailer released in July last year was brilliant. I thought we are in for a big and smart promotion of this century-old story, but instead we got the exact opposite. While the second trailer was pretty good, people who are not familiar with the character just thought it was "another" Attack of the Clones or Avatar, which is ironic considering those films exist just because of the story John Carter is based on. Still, studio should have introduce this film as a story that inspired all that I mentioned above, but not a single sign of that in the trailers or TV spots. That was a first big mistake. As a fan who knows what's going on in the spots, I loved almost every one. But, there are many people out there who have no idea what's going on in the footage. The second big mistake was not mentioning Andrew Stanton's name or his previous films, which are of course, two Academy Award-winning Pixar films called WALL•E and Finding Nemo.
All that was a result of the problem Disney had late last year with the president of worldwide marketing, and it seems everything went downhill after that. So, is it still possible for the film to be a box office success? Yes, it is. Disney already showed the film to the press, and allowed them to share their thoughts on Twitter and Facebook, which is definitely a good thing. Power of social media is growing, and many who saw the film said that it's really good, and positive word-of-mouth is already getting bigger. But, what about the trailers? Well, there is still another trailer we will get soon (Trailer #3), but before that, our friends over at The John Carter Files have created this fan trailer with the footage available, and it gets so many things right than any other official trailer. Director Andrew Stanton already approved this trailer a couple of days ago by saying, "Great fan trailer! They get it!" and after that almost every movie site posted it. With that, the trailer just passed over 100,000 views, and almost every single comment has been positive and supportive. Check it out:
You see Disney, it's really not THAT hard. Click the video to see it on You Tube so you can check out the comments. Even people who had no idea about it, are getting excited. Why? Because there are three MAJOR things in this trailer that are very important. First, the better idea of what the story is. Second, having the
"The epic tale that inspired 100 years of filmmaking", and third thing, the most important part, mentioning
"From the director of WALL•E & Finding Nemo." Also, that 4-minute sizzle reel released two days ago was made by the editor of the film, and NOT the
John Carter marketing team. That footage also changed a lot of opinions and got positive reactions.
The fans are out there, doing their best promoting
John Carter and trying to get many people interested in the film. Click the source below to see how you too can help by tweeting and sharing this or any other promo material on Facebook. If you are interested and you have Twitter, add
#GoBarsoom hashtag (which director himself started) in every John Carter tweet and let's spread the word. You can follow
@JohnCarter film on Twitter and
LIKE it on Facebook.
On MARCH 9TH, he arrives.