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John Carter and Deja Thoris by Boris Vallejo and Julie Campbell

Remember Tarzan?!  Then you’ll be pleasantly surprised to know that Edgar Rice Buroughs’ other well known hero, John Carter, from Burough’s Martian series, will be hitting the movie screens in 2012.

John Carter Warlord of Mars by Boris Vallejo

Walt Disney Pictures is shooting the live action film John Carter of Mars in London. As long as the screen play holds it’s own, the movie should be a hit with the weight of everyone involved.  Wall-E director Andrew Stanton is at the helm! FRAK YES! The actor line up is; Taylor Kitsch (Gambit – X-Men Origins: Wolverine) as John Carter, Lynn Collins (Kayla Silverfox/Wolverine’s girlfriend: X-Men Origins: Wolverine) as “the incomparable Dejah Thoris, Princess of Mars, Willem Dafoe (Elias: Platoon, Norman Osborn/Green Goblin: Spider-Man I) as the green, four limbed Tharkian, Thomas Haden Church (Sandman: Spider-Man 3), Polly Walker, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong (Lord Blackwood: Sherlock Holmes), Claran Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, (who was brilliant as Marc Anthony in HBO’s Rome, will portray Kantos Kan, the captain of the Kingdom of Helium’s flagship, the Xavarian), Bryan Cranston, and Daryl Sabara.  Jesus Christ! What a cast!

John Carter Warlord of Mars by Frank Frazetta

Carter is a 6’2 stud with close-cropped black hair, steel-gray eyes and is portrayed as something akin to an immortal. In the opening pages of of Burrough’s first book, A Princess of Mars, Carter is contemplative, remembering no childhood, having always been a man of about thirty years old. With many generations of families having referred to him as “Uncle Jack,” Carter inevitably ends up living to see all the members of these families grow old and die, while he forever remains young.

A Virginian, John Carter had just served as a Confederate captain in the American Civil War. He finds his fortune in Arizona gold after the cessation of the hostilities. While hiding from blood-thirsty Apaches in a cave, Carter seemingly dies and his spirit-essence, leaving his body behind,  is somehow transported to Mars, where he finds himself re-embodied in form, identical to his body back on earth. Having lived in Earth’s heavier gravity, Carter finds that he is much stronger than the native inhabitants on Mars, which has a weaker gravity.

John Carter Warlord of Mars Comic Book #1

On Mars, which the inhabitants refer to as Barsoom, Carter encounters tall green skinned, four-armed warriors called the Thark, as well as various other beasts and humanoids, and finds his true calling in life as a warrior-savior for the people of Barsoom. Carter eventually wins the hand of Dejah Thoris, who, unbeknownst to him, is the princess of Helium. Unfortunately, in a Christ-like fashion, he ends up sacrificing himself to save the planet.

After his death on Mars, Carter then awakens, shocked more so not at being alive but at miraculously having been transported back to Earth. Being unable to return to Mars, Carter spends his remaining years living in a small cottage on the Hudson River in New York, where he again “dies an Earthly death” on March 4, 1866.

John Carter Warlord of Mars Comic Book #11

As occurred the first time, Carter’s second demise is not a true death as he is restored, once again, back on Barsoom, where he eventually rises to the position of Warlord of Mars. He eventually returns to Earth on several more occasions to relate his adventures to his nephew, who is none other than the creator of the John Carter series himself, Edgar Rice Burroughs! Carter also shares with Burroughs that he has finally mastered astral-projection travel between Earth and Mars. While on Mars Carter’s Earth bound body is housed in a special tomb that can only be opened from the inside.

This movie will kick TOTAL Ass!  Stay tuned for John Carter movie t-shirts.