"John Carter of Mars" Moving Ahead!

[Gov Kodos]

I love how ERB Inc. is complaining about the "risque" nature of Dynamite's material. Have they not read their founding father's books?

Other than that, it does seem like a clear-cut case of trademark infringement, though.

The Betty Boop case that was decided last year -- Fleischer Studios sued a manufacturer that was creating Betty Boop merchandise based on the public domain cartoons on the grounds that they were violating the Betty Boop trademark -- would have some application here as the court held that trademark doesn't trump copyright because if it did then nothing would ever enter the public domain.

Dynamite can also argue trademark abandonment because ERB didn't sue to stop production or release of the Asylum adaptation of A Princess of Mars.

I am quite amused that that awful film might come to some good purpose. At least for my entertainment, if not to the ERB Estate.

 

[JD]

The Dynamite material has been great!!
Boo on the ERB estate, it's public domain, isn't that what the article said? What Standing do they have if it's in the public domain?

I was kind of confused by that too. I thought public domain meant that it was free for anybody to use now. Or is this one of those situations where only certain things are public domain and the rest is still copyrighted?

 

[Psion]

The Dynamite material has been great!!
Boo on the ERB estate, it's public domain, isn't that what the article said? What Standing do they have if it's in the public domain?

It isn't public domain in the UK, though.

The Dynamite material has been great!!
Boo on the ERB estate, it's public domain, isn't that what the article said? What Standing do they have if it's in the public domain?

I was kind of confused by that too. I thought public domain meant that it was free for anybody to use now. Or is this one of those situations where only certain things are public domain and the rest is still copyrighted?

Again ... it isn't public domain in the U.K. Although the first five books have been clear of copyright in the U.S., copyrights were filed separately in the U.S. and U.K., and under the Berne Convention, ERB's copyright in the U.K. (and much of the rest of the world) is the life of the author, plus seventy years. I believe this means that all of Burrough's work frees up in 2020.

Under the Facts Common to All Claims for Relief in the lawsuit, item 41 acknowledges those stories published before January 1, 1924 have expired in the United States. Item 42 states:

In foreign jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, all countries in the European Union and other members of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works that have extended protection to the life of the author plus seventy years, all eleven works in the JOHN CARTER OF MARS Series remain protected by copyright, either because they were published simultaneously in the U.S. and the U.K., because U.S. copyright still exists for the works, or because they are separately protected under domestic copyright statutes or treaties with the United States.

Now it is puzzling how the plaintiffs can claim that "Some of the covers and comic panels inside [Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris] series border on (and in some cases are) pornographic." [Fact 83] Er ... Burroughs sets us up in 1917's Princess of Mars by noting that it is customary for Martians to wander around naked except for the jewellery they wear. He describes Dejah Thoris herself as the most beautiful woman Carter has ever seen and with the form of a goddess. How do you draw this without making it pornographic?! In fact, I'll hazard to say that in 1917, this was the intent ... to goad the hormones of young male readers with lurid descriptions of epic battles and naked women (who often find themselves in bondage).

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Burroughs and his works have long been attacked by prudes. There were a number of such controversies surrounding Tarzan, both books and films. Now it appears his descendants have become the prudes.

Read, or seen quite a number of the covers they've been sold with.

Yes. Tame compared with the real thing.

The Betty Boop case that was decided last year -- Fleischer Studios sued a manufacturer that was creating Betty Boop merchandise based on the public domain cartoons on the grounds that they were violating the Betty Boop trademark -- would have some application here as the court held that trademark doesn't trump copyright because if it did then nothing would ever enter the public domain.

Huh. That's interesting. So if a Trademarked character appears in a work that enters the public domain, that character can be used in derivative works-- or is it just that images from the public domain work could be used on tee shirts and such?

 

[Warped9]

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2012/02/now_thats_how_you_market_john_carter.php

HOLY CRAP!!! Now THAT"S how you put a trailer together.

Says everything you need to know to pique your interest without spilling too much.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Crazy how the fans can apparently do a better job at marketing this movie than the people that actually get paid to do it.

 

[Dream]

Crazy how the fans can apparently do a better job at marketing this movie than the people that actually get paid to do it.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqtwDuJi6Cg[/yt]

 

[davejames]

The fan trailer is an improvement, but it's still only the opening portion with him arriving on the planet that looks interesting to me. After that, it starts looking too much like just another busy, overblown SW prequel.

 

[Warped9]

The fan trailer is an improvement, but it's still only the opening portion with him arriving on the planet that looks interesting to me. After that, it starts looking too much like just another busy, overblown SW prequel.

So i suppose you want the whole movie spelled out for you? Then you wouldn't need to see the film at all.

Then it would be like a lot of other trailers.

I just finished reading Princess Of Mars. It was interesting and imaginative and colourful even though it's very much a product of its time. But there was enough in it that I could see the potential for an enjoyable film. The book certainly didn't end the way I had expected so I wonder if the film will follow suit. It's also interesting to see how this could be as influential as it was, The most immediate example that comes to mind is John Norman's Gor series of books. It's almost a direct adaptation except that Norman's writing is more contemporary in style and sensibilities and more blatant sexuality. Back in the '70s I quite enjoyed some of the early Gor books (easy to see how it can appeal to a young male mindset) and in contrast ERB's Mars books feel tame and even staid.

 

[JD]

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2012/02/now_thats_how_you_market_john_carter.php

HOLY CRAP!!! Now THAT"S how you put a trailer together.

Says everything you need to know to pique your interest without spilling too much.

Crazy how the fans can apparently do a better job at marketing this movie than the people that actually get paid to do it.

Yeah. I'm really starting to think they should just promote these kinds of movie purely through fan made trailers. They're almost always better than what the "professionals" come up with.

 

[Dream]

Yeah. I'm really starting to think they should just promote these kinds of movie purely through fan made trailers. They're almost always better than what the "professionals" come up with.

That's because fans actually care about the material. They also love it and know what the books are actually about.

It is just another paycheck to the studio people doing the adversting.

 

[Harvey]

To be fair to the trailer industry, since I know several people who work in it, often times what they come up with is vetoed or dramatically changed at the request of studios and/or filmmakers. Also important to know is the fact that on average the only thing people do more dramatically than complain about trailers giving away the entire plot of a movie is go to those movies in greater droves than others with less revealing trailers.

 

[JD]

Yeah, I have a feeling that most of the bad trailers probably have a lot more to do with the studio marketing head honchos than the actual people putting the trailers together.

 

[Captain Craig]

There is a separate 'trailer industry'? It's not just a branch of a studios existing marketing/PR division? They outsource trailers?

 

[Dream]

To be fair to the trailer industry, since I know several people who work in it, often times what they come up with is vetoed or dramatically changed at the request of studios and/or filmmakers. Also important to know is the fact that on average the only thing people do more dramatically than complain about trailers giving away the entire plot of a movie is go to those movies in greater droves than others with less revealing trailers.

Better to give away the entire plot of a movie than not reveal anything about your movie like all the John Carter trailers have been doing. This movie has had terrible marketing. Really terrible.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow director Kerry Conran planned to follow that movie with A Princess of Mars, and he put together a demo reel for Paramount.

That demo reel has surfaced.

There's a lot of concept art for Conran's vision of Barsoom, and it's fabulous. So too are the CGI renders of the Tharks, particularly the scene depicting Carter, with one sword, battling a Thark, with four swords.

I'm weeping for the movie we didn't get.

 

[nvek86]

An extended clip has been released. It features Carter battling the big white apes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xBaGv5bx0Q

 

[Saga]

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow director Kerry Conran planned to follow that movie with A Princess of Mars, and he put together a demo reel for Paramount.

That demo reel has surfaced.

There's a lot of concept art for Conran's vision of Barsoom, and it's fabulous. So too are the CGI renders of the Tharks, particularly the scene depicting Carter, with one sword, battling a Thark, with four swords.

I'm weeping for the movie we didn't get.

i think i'm one of the few people who actually liked Sky Captain. i was eagerly awaiting Conran's version of Barsoom. and yes, the Tharks in that demo do look better than what we're getting in John Carter.

 

[Warped9]

An extended clip has been released. It features Carter battling the big white apes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xBaGv5bx0Q

To hell with advance doubters and what's being said. I think this looks like it could be fun.

 

[Skywalker]

From all indications it does seem like the movie itself is fine, it's just the marketing that's dropped the ball.

Heck, I've never even read any of the stories and I think it's stupid that they just titled it John Carter. They shouldn't be afraid of their own movie. Nobody even remembers Mars Needs Moms.