Vulture recently sat down with Thomas Haden Church to discuss his upcoming film
Don McKay. They posed a few questions on the subject of
John Carter Of mars.
This from Vulture....
You’re now involved in another film with a long development history, the live-action blockbuster John Carter of Mars.
I got a letter a year ago saying, “You’ve been offered this role, please call this number to discuss.” And it was a phone number in Northern California. I called my agent, and he said that didn’t even come through us, that came straight from Disney. So I called [writer and director] Andrew Stanton, who two weeks previously had just won two Academy Awards, and we talked for like two hours. He’s such a funny, warm, smart guy. He said he wrote the part for me, and gave me this whole backstory of John Carter, even though I’d already read the script. Filming started in January in England, and I went over there for a couple weeks. Then they’re moving to Utah and I’m about to go back..
Do you have a sense yet of the look of the film, since technological questions were at the heart of so many of its fitful starts?
The only comparison I can make is Avatar. It’s live-action, CGI, and motion capture — all that stuff. I didn’t realize how excited people were about this movie, and that it’s been around for like 80 years — somebody was telling me they tried to mount the first production in 1930 or something. But it’s going to be fascinating, it really is. They don’t say don’t talk at all about it, but I want to be political. I’ll say this: My character is a badass warrior. There are tribes, and in my tribe he’s a very ferocious individual.
John Carter Of Mars is directed by Andrew Stanton and stars Taylor Kitsch, Mark Strong, Willem Dafoe, Bryan Cranston, Lynn Collins, James Purefoy, Samantha Morton and Thomas Haden Church. It is due in theaters in 2012.