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John Carter is a 2012 American science fiction action film that tells the adventures of John Carter, the heroic protagonist of Edgar Rice Burroughs' 11-volume Barsoomseries.^[5] The film marks the centennial of the character's first appearance.

Former Confederate captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) is mysteriously transported to Mars ("Barsoom") where he becomes part of a conflict between the various nations of the planet, whose leaders include Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). Carter takes it upon himself to save Barsoom and its people from a growing threat.^[5][6]

The film is the live-action debut of director/writer Andrew Stanton; his previous work includes the Pixar animated films Finding Nemo and WALL-E.^[7][8] Co-written byMark Andrews and Michael Chabon, it is produced by Jim Morris, Colin Wilson, and Lindsey Collins, and scored by Michael Giacchino.^[1][7][9]

Walt Disney Pictures is distributing the film and released it in the United States on March 9, 2012; the film is shown in regular 2D and in the Digital 3D and IMAX 3Dformats.^[10][11][12] Filming began in November 2009 with principal photography underway in January 2010, wrapping seven months later in July 2010.^[13][14]

In 1931 Looney Tunes director Bob Clampett approached Edgar Rice Burroughs with the idea of adapting A Princess of Mars into a feature-length animated film. Burroughs responded enthusiastically, recognizing that a regular live-action feature would face various limitations to adapt accurately, so he advised Clampett to write an original animated adventure for John Carter.^[23] Working with Burroughs' son John Coleman Burroughs in 1935, Clampett used rotoscope and other hand-drawn techniques to capture the action, tracing over the motions of an athlete who performed John Carter's powerful movements in the reduced Martian gravity. Clampett designed Tharks, the Green, multi-armed Martians of Barsoom, giving them a believable appearance. He then produced footage of them riding their eight-legged Thoats at a gallop, which had all of their eight legs moving in coordinated motion; he also produced footage of a fleet of rocketships emerging from a Martian volcano. MGM was to release the cartoons, and the studio heads were enthusiastic about the series.^[24]

The test footage, produced by 1936^[25], received negative reactions from film exhibitors across the U. S., especially in small towns; many gave their opinion that the concept of an Earthman on Mars was just too outlandish an idea for midwestern American audiences to accept. The series was not given the go-ahead, and Clampett was instead encouraged to produce an animated Tarzan series, an offer which he later declined. Clampett recognized the irony in MGM's decision, as the Flash Gordon movie serial, released in the same year by Universal Studios, was highly successful. He speculated that MGM believed that serials were only played to children during Saturday matinees, whereas the John Carter tales were intended to be seen by adults during the evening. The footage that Clampett produced was believed lost for many years, until Burroughs' grandson, Danton Burroughs, in the early 1970s found some of the film tests in the Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. archives.^[24] Had A Princess of Mars been released, it may have preceded Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to become the first American feature-length animated film.^[26]

During the late 1950s famed stop-motion animation effects director Ray Harryhausen expressed interest in filming the novels, but it was not until the 1980s that producers Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajnabought the rights for Walt Disney Pictures, with a view to creating a competitor to Star Wars and Conan the Barbarian. Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio were hired to write, while John McTiernan and Tom Cruise were approached to direct and star. The project collapsed because McTiernan realized that visual effects were not yet advanced enough to recreate Burroughs' vision of Barsoom. The project remained at Disney, andJeffrey Katzenberg was a strong proponent of filming the novels, but the rights eventually returned to the Burroughs' estate.^[26]

Producer James Jacks read Harry Knowles' autobiography, which lavishly praised the John Carter of Mars series. Having read the Burroughs' novels as a child, Jacks was moved to convince Paramount Pictures to acquire the film rights; a bidding war with Columbia Pictures followed. After Paramount and Jacks won the rights, Jacks contacted Knowles to become an adviser on the project and hired Mark Protosevich to write the screenplay. Robert Rodriguez signed on in 2004 to direct the film after his friend Knowles showed him the script. Recognizing that Knowles had been an adviser to many other filmmakers, Rodriguez asked him to be credited as a producer.^[26]

Filming was set to begin in 2005, with Rodriguez planning to use the all-digital stages he was using for his production of Sin City, a film based on the graphic novel series by Frank Miller.^[26] Rodriguez planned to hire Frank Frazetta, the popular Burroughs and fantasy illustrator, as a designer on the film.^[27] Rodriguez had previously stirred-up film industry controversy by his decision to credit Sin City's artist/creator Frank Miller as co-director on the film adaptation; as a result of all the hoopla, Rodriguez decided to resign from the Directors Guild of America. In 2004, unable to hire a non-DGA filmmaker, Paramount assigned Kerry Conran to direct and Ehren Kruger to rewrite the John Carter script. The Australian Outback was scouted as a shooting location. Conran left the film for unknown reasons and was replaced in October of 2005 byJon Favreau.^[26]

Favreau and screenwriter Mark Fergus wanted to make their script faithful to the Burroughs' novels, retaining John Carter's links to the American Civil War and ensuring that the Barsoomian Tharks were 15 feet tall (previous scripts had made them human-sized). Favreau argued that a modern day soldier would not know how to fence or ride a horse like Carter, who had been a Confederate officer. The first film he envisioned would have adapted the first three novels in the Barsoom series: A Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars, and The Warlord of Mars. Unlike Rodriguez and Conran, Favreau preferred using practical effects for his film and cited Planet of the Apes as his inspiration. He intended to use make-up, as well as CGI, to create the 15 foot-tall Tharks. Favreau's affiliation with the project was never strong, and in August 2006 Paramount chose not to renew the film rights, preferring instead to focus on their Star Trek franchise. Favreau and Fergus moved on to Marvel's Iron Man.^[26]

In January 2007 Disney regained the rights, acquiring them again for Andrew Stanton and writer Mark Andrews. Stanton noted he was effectively being "loaned" to Walt Disney Pictures because Pixar is an all-ages brand and John Carter was rated PG-13.^[28] By 2008 they completed the first draft for Part One of a John Carter film trilogy; the first film is based only on the first novel.^[29] In April 2009 author Michael Chabonconfirmed he had been hired to revise the script.^[8][30][31]

Having completed WALL-E, Stanton and Wells visited the archives of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., in Tarzana, California, as part of their research.^[26] Jim Morris, general manager of Pixar, said the film will have a unique look that is distinct from Frank Frazetta's illustrations, which they both found dated.^[32] He also noted that although he had less time for pre-production than for any of his usual animated projects, the task was nevertheless relatively easy since he had read the Burroughs' novels as a child and had already visualized many of its scenes.^[8]

The film was originally titled John Carter of Mars, but Stanton removed "of Mars" to make it more appealing to a broader audience, stating that the film is an "origin story. It's about a guy becoming John Carter of Mars."^[33] Stanton plans to keep "Mars" in the title for future films in the series.^[33] Kitsch said the title was changed to reflect the character's journey, as John Carter will become "of Mars" only in the last few minutes of the picture.^[34]

Principal photography commenced at Longcross Studios, London, in January 2010 and ended in Utah in July 2010.^[14][35] Locations in Utah included Lake Powell and the counties of Grand, Wayne, andKane.^[36][37]

In February 2010 Michael Giacchino revealed in an interview he will be scoring the film.^[9][38] Given his association with Pixar Animation Studios, Andrew Stanton is the fourth Pixar filmmaker Giacchino will have worked with following Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol), Pete Docter (Up) and John Lasseter (Cars 2).

On March 9, 2012, Walt Disney Pictures will release the film in several 3D formats.^[39][40]

Although the original film release date was June 8, 2012, in January 2011 Disney moved the release date to March 9, 2012.^[10][15][41] A teaser trailer for the film premiered on July 14, 2011 and was shown in 3D and 2D with showings of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2; the official trailer premiered on November 30, 2011. On February 5, 2012 an extended commercial promoting the movie aired during the Super Bowl,^[42] and before the day of the game, Andrew Stanton, a Massachusetts native, held a special screening of the film for both the team members and families of the New England Patriots and New York Giants.^[43]

One week before the film's release, Disney removed an embargo on reviews of the film.^[44] As of March 8, the film holds a 49% "Rotten" rating on the film-critics aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes based on 108 reviews; the general consensus is "While John Carter looks terrific and delivers its share of pulpy thrills, it also suffers from uneven pacing and occasionally incomprehensible plotting and characterization."^[45] OnMetacritic as of March 9, the film holds a rating of 52% based on 31 reviews, signifying "Mixed or average reviews".^[46]

Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Derivative but charming and fun enough, Disney's mammoth scifier is both spectacular and a bit cheesy."^[47] Glenn Kenny of MSN Movies rated the film 4 out of 5 stars, saying, "By the end of the adventure, even the initially befuddling double-frame story pays off, in spades. For me, this is the first movie of its kind in a very long time that I'd willingly sit through a second or even third time."^[48] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times rated the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, commenting that the movie "is intended to foster a franchise and will probably succeed. Does John Carter get the job done for the weekend action audience? Yes, I suppose it does."^[49] Dan Jolin of Empire gave the film 3 stars out of 5, noting, "Stanton has built a fantastic world, but the action is unmemorable. Still, just about every sci-fi/fantasy/superhero adventure you ever loved is in here somewhere."^[50] Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, calling the film "undeniably silly, sprawling and easy to make fun of, [but] also playful, genuinely epic and absolutely comfortable being what it is. In this genre, those are virtues as rare as a cave of gold."^[51] A.O. Scott of The New York Times gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, saying, "John Carter tries to evoke, to reanimate, a fondly recalled universe of B-movies, pulp novels and boys’ adventure magazines. But it pursues this modest goal according to blockbuster logic, which buries the easy, scrappy pleasures of the old stuff in expensive excess. A bad movie should not look this good."^[52]

Peter Debruge of Variety gave a negative review, saying, "To watch John Carter is to wonder where in this jumbled space opera one might find the intuitive sense of wonderment and awe Stanton brought to Finding Nemo and WALL-E."^[53] Owen Glieberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a D rating, feeling, "Nothing in John Carter really works, since everything in the movie has been done so many times before, and so much better."^[54] Christy Lemire of the Associated Press wrote that, "Except for a strong cast, a few striking visuals and some unexpected flashes of humor, John Carter is just a dreary, convoluted trudge — a soulless sprawl of computer-generated blippery converted to 3-D."^[55] Michael Philips of the Chicago Tribune rated the film 2 out of 4 stars, saying the film "isn't much — or rather, it's too much and not enough in weird, clumpy combinations — but it is a curious sort of blur."^[56] Andrew O'Herir of Salon.com called it "a profoundly flawed film, and arguably a terrible one on various levels. But if you’re willing to suspend not just disbelief but also all considerations of logic and intelligence and narrative coherence, it’s also a rip-roaring, fun adventure, fatefully balanced between high camp and boyish seriousness at almost every second."^[57]Mick LaSelle of San Francisco Chronicle rated the film 1 star out of 4, noting, "John Carter is a movie designed to be long, epic and in 3-D, but that's as far as the design goes. It's designed to be a product, and it's a flimsy one."^[58]

In the UK, the film was savaged by Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian, gaining only 1 star out of 5 and described as a "giant, suffocating doughy feast of boredom"^[59]. The film garnered 2 out of 5 stars in The Daily Telegraph, decribed as "a technical marvel, but is also armrest-clawingly hammy and painfully dated"^[60].

Walt Disney Records released the soundtrack on March 6, 2012, three days before the film's release.