Would a "From the creator of Tarzan" tag line been so difficult? Surely that couldn't have hurt to let people know something. I enjoyed the movie and it's a shame that exploring it further in live action is now gone.
Seriously. It took a hundred years to get it made and they blew it on the marketing. "From The Creator Of Tarzan" or even "A Hundred Years In The Making" would have done wonders.
Since John Carter is in the public domain, another studio could continue. They'd have to deviate from the look and original story notes of the Disney film, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Of course, they won't, because Hollywood tends to learn the wrong lessons from its failures, but it'd be cool to see with a new cast and look.
A studio could do this, but they wouldn't be able to distribute the film in Europe; the John Carter novels aren't public domain there.
Hell, it could have benefitted simply from saying "From the makers of Wall-E" or something. I don't remember that being brought up In the ads. People know and love Pixar stuff; but they generally aren't going to dig deep into a magazine article to figure out that this was essentially a live action Pixar movie. I don't know who's fault it was; I've seen some blaming the director for micro-managing the marketing. Regardless, they just didn't go into the marketing with all guns blazing. They had *alot* to promote this movie with, but it was just squandered.
I always thought it would be great to see A Princess Of Mars done in the style of the old Johnny Weismuller-Maureen O'Sullivan Tarzan movies. Kickstarter, here I come. Poor ERB.
Only for eight more years, though! Still a bit of a wait, but I bet we'll need that much time before the stink of Disney's effort fades.
I found John Carter entertaining but to me I find it puzzling why this movie was made in the first place. Hardcore fans may know about Burrough's John Carter/Barsoom series but unlike Tarzan it lacks that sense of timelessness. To me the problem at least movie wise is the same problem "Flash Gordon" had. It's TOO accurate to it's source material therefore too weird for the general audience and it's obvious a product of the early 20th century. Of course the title change didn't help. I mean would you watch "Raider of the Lost Ark" if it's called "Professor Henry Jones". "John Carter" doesn't work because most people don't know what he's associated with (hence the importance of adding "of Mars") Honestly having one movie is enough. Judging by Wikipedia, the other books in the series just get weirder and would be harder to sell than "Princess of Mars".
Here's an alternate opening scene that'll be on the blu-ray: http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/05/31/john-carter-original-opening/ While I'm not overly fond of the opening narration, I'm not sure that I would have liked this one better. This much technobabble in the very first scene of your movie is sure to alienate viewers unfamiliar with the material. Still, it's an interesting look at what might have been.
How? Films frequently have leader credits From the Director of The Dark Knight....INCEPTION (just to name a recent one) How would the below not be in the same vein? From the creator Tarzan.... Disney is proud to present the first live action telling of..... JOHN CARTER
You are trying to make sense. Disney implies ownership of every property they put on the screen. For example, it wasn't "Disney presents Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame." It was billed as "Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame." To attribute the story to Burroughs, even though it's his story, defeats their titling it as theirs.
Definitely not the First. SyFy frequently airs a John Carter (Princess of Mars?) movie that stars Trashy Lords and Antonio Sabato, Jr from 2009
Reminds me eerily of Dune. "Know then that it is the year blah blah, the known universe is ruled by the Padishah Emperor Saddam blah blah....Arrakis also known as Dune blah blah...."
I don't remember the opening they used in the final movie, but this one was rather dry, I can see why they changed it.
I like the added exposition in that deleted opening, but man is that scene clunky. And I don't think any editing tricks could have prevented that. I think the opening we did get was the wrong move from a dramatic perspective as well. It was confusing, we didn't care about anyone or know which side to root for, or the stakes involved. Don't start the movie on Mars. Instead the movie should have started on John Carter and let us discover Mars with the main character. As an audience we were ahead of the protagonist, and it just did not work. Also instead of telling us Zodanga and Sab Than were evil right at the start, show us during the movie how evil they are.
I agree, the movie should open small with Carter and then move into Mars. I don't like the way genre movies nowadays have this five minute opening where they just fling exposition at us then move into the story. It should happen as the character discovers it. There's no sense of mystery and wonder.
I think Hollywood is just afraid that people will be to stupid to follow what's going on in these kinds of movies unless they give us all of the background in the beginning. And sadly, based on some of the comments I've seen in reviews and on places like Amazon, they might not be entirely wrong. I'm talking about the general public here, not people like us who watch sci-fi & fantasy stuff like this all the time.