Since that amazing first teaser trailer, it has been pretty quiet regarding news for
John Carter, a big screen adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' BARSOOM series. Film is directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Andrew Stanton (
Finding Nemo,
WALL-E), making his live-action debut with this big action adventure. Now, via
Stitch Kingdom, Walt Disney Studios has released official character descriptions from the film.
THE EARTHMEN - (From the planet Earth of the late 1800s — light years from Barsoom, a.k.a. Mars):
JOHN CARTER (Taylor Kitsch) – “No good’ll come out of me fightin’ your war.” — Born in Virginia, John Carter served as an officer in the Confederate army in the Civil War. He is an honorable and courageous hero, but the ravages of the Civil War have left him broken, dispirited and personally defeated. Accidentally transported to Barsoom (Mars), Carter begins to realize that his strength and jumping abilities are greatly amplified in the low gravity of the planet. Carter reluctantly begins a journey to rediscover his humanity while at the same time saving his newfound world.
COLONEL POWELL (Bryan Cranston) — “Captain, I’m finding it difficult to reconcile the man on this piece of paper with the one I’m looking at.” — Colonel Powell is a seasoned, by-the-book, tough-as-nails U.S. cavalry officer. Powell’s mission is to enlist John Carter to fight the Apaches from his unit’s outpost in the Arizona Territory. He is thwarted in this by John Carter’s abject refusal to have anything to do with the military—or any cause, no matter how just.
EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS (Daryl Sabara) — “My mother always said Jack never really came back from the war.” — Edgar Rice Burroughs is John Carter’s inquisitive 18-year-old nephew. Edgar adores his Uncle John and as a child enjoyed listening to wild tales he spun that took him on journeys to places Edgar could hardly even imagine. Burroughs receives an urgent telegram from his Uncle and rushes to him — only to find it may be too late.
MATAI SHANG (Mark Strong) — “We do not cause the destruction of a world, Captain Carter. We simply manage it. Feed off it, if you like.” — Matai Shang is the Holy Hekkador (King) of the Therns. Using their advanced technology, the mysterious Therns represent themselves as the messengers of the Barsoomian Goddess Issus in order to manipulate their own plans.
DEJAH THORIS (Lynn Collins) — “If you had the means to save others, would you not take any action possible to make it so?” — Dejah Thoris, the beautiful, raven-haired princess of Helium, is a passionate advocate for the Heliumites and their way of life. Dejah is Regent of the Royal Academy of Science, and was trained to rule and fight. She is on the verge of a discovery that could permanently shift the balance of power between her nation Helium and their enemy Zodanga. But time is running out, and Dejah must convince John Carter to enlist in the fight to save Helium.
KANTOS KAN (James Purefoy) — “Hello, ladies.” — Kantos Kan is the Odwar (Captain) of the Helium air navy and is fiercely loyal to Tardos Mors and his daughter, Dejah Thoris. Intelligent, handsome and brave, Kantos will do anything in his power to fight for Helium and protect the royal family.
SAB THAN (Dominic West) — “Death to Helium!” — Sab Than is the Jeddak (King) of Zodanga. He is impulsive, arrogant and aggressive, promoting war and conquest as the Zodangan way of life. With a dangerously calculated charm, Sab will even try to make a deal with the devil to destroy Helium and rule all of Barsoom.
TARS TARKAS (Willem Dafoe) — “When I saw you leap into the sky, I wished to believe it was a sign that something new can come into this world.” — Tars Tarkas is a fierce green Martian warrior who is the Jeddak (King) of the Tharks. The last vestige of nobility runs in his blood and is the only thing that keeps the Thark tribe from turning into beasts. Blessed with a good sense of humor and patience, Tars befriends the earthman John Carter and gives him the Thark name Dotar Sojat, which roughly translates as “my right arms.”
Plus, here are some John Carter fun facts:
* 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the character John Carter, the original space hero featured in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series. Heroic John Carter has thrilled generations with his adventures on Mars.
* Since 1935, various filmmakers have attempted to make a movie based on A Princess of Mars — the first was intended to be an animated feature film by Bob Clampett of ‘Beany and Cecil’ fame. If it had been made, it would have been America’s first full-length animated film, prior to Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which premiered in 1937.
* A fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series of books since childhood, Director/Writer Andrew Stanton says he was inspired to bring John Carter to the big screen—in his first foray into live action—because he had always been attracted to the concept of a human finding himself on Mars, among the creatures of a strange new world.
* John Carter screenwriters Andrew Stanton, Mark Andrews and Michael Chabon discovered they had something in common when they met: they all still possessed the John Carter drawings and artwork that they had done when they were boys.
* Filming of John Carter began in the UK on January 4, 2010. The bulk of the movie’s stage work (along with exterior sequences set on Earth) was filmed at Shepperton Studios, London and Longcross Studios in Chelburn, over a four-month period. Then production moved to Utah for an additional 12 weeks of shooting, with locations in Moab, Lake Powell, the Delta salt flats, Hanksville (where the US space agency, NASA, has tested robotic vehicles), and Big Water—a vast mesa of granulated shale and sandstone set before a towering ring of red cliffs that border the Grand Staircase National Monument.
For much more fun facts and character descriptions, head over to Stitch Kingdom.
John Carter is set to hit theatres on March 9, 2012!