“It is huge, it is exciting, it scares the crap out of me. It’s either going to make me or break me.”
It is NOT a Pixar movie, rather a Disney film. However Stanton’s creative team from Pixar are all still involved.
The style is going to be very real, not highly stylized. He said that 20 some years ago that version could have been made, but since Star Wars and a whole glut of science fiction and fantasy films have ripped off giant portions of JCOM over the years the only option he sees is doing a straight up, realistic version of the story. He described it as if it was a National Geographic crew that stumbled across a preserved civilization while exploring a cave. Very real, but awe-inspiring.
He is not planning nor wanting to shoot it 3-D (thank God… I love James Cameron, and I think AVATAR is going to be amazing, but I’m getting tired of every big event movie being 3-D), but thinks Disney might want to push him towards it.
Stanton has been a fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs since he was a kid, so while he won’t have the same kind of development time on this one as he had on his animated movie he looks at it as him living with the story in his brain for 40 plus years instead of the 6-8 of his animated films.
He has his second draft done and will be casting soon.
Oh God, I’d so love to see JCOM done right. It sounds good, but who knows? I could even give in on the matter of clothing, or the lack thereof. Just make the weapons harnesses a little broad, with some silks hanging down for the women, like on the book covers.
At formal events they seem to be a little more covered up, what with all the draperies and tons of jewels on the women.
I’ve never read a John Carter book, but whenever the movie comes up, someone always mentions how the female characters NEED to be as naked as they are in the book.
Why? What difference does it make? Don’t you realize that some things just can’t fly in the movie world.
I love the Old Man’s War series by John Scalzi, and a major plot point of two books involves all of the characters stripping down (and at one point, there’s a huge 30 person orgy that is also a major plot point). I realize that if a movie ever gets made, these scenes will have to be modified. That’s life. For that matter, if the Ender’s Game movie ever gets made, will people be howling about the lack of naked pre-teens?
Are you kidding? Any movie that doesn’t feature totally nude children beating each other to death in the shower can not adequately convey the penetrating social insight of Card’s vision. Thematically, this is non-negotiable.
Let’s not compromise the film’s message with the arrogant presumption that audiences aren’t ready to view a Spartan society of naked coed prepubescents in zero gravity. Now more than ever, this story must be told. Don’t deny Card his richly earned legacy.
Sorry about that. Um, yeah… Other stuff happens too, obviously… I mean, they wouldn’t give a book both the Nebula and Hugo Awards just on account of a scene depicting a fatal prepubescent shower beating. I think that probably goes without saying. So I don’t feel I’ve spoiled the book too badly for you in that regard. There’s definitely some other stuff going on, all right. It’s not all about the shower beatings.