John Carter

John Carter is a 2012 American epic science fiction film featuring John Carter, the heroic protagonist of Edgar Rice Burroughs' 11-volume Barsoom series. In the film, former Confederate captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) is transported to Mars ("Barsoom"). There 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. The film is directed by Andrew Stanton, written by Stanton, Mark Andrews, and Michael Chabon, produced by Jim Morris, Colin Wilson, and Lindsey Collins, and scored by Michael Giacchino. The film is being distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and will be released in the United States on March 9, 2012. Filming began in November 2009 and principal photography spanned from January 2010 to July 2010. This project marks the first time that Andrew Stanton has worked on a live-action film, as his previous work includes the Pixar animated films Finding Nemo and WALL-E. The film will be released in Digital 3D and IMAX 3D formats. The film is largely based on A Princess of Mars, the first novel to feature John Carter. The novel was originally published as a magazine serial in 1912 and then brought out in book form in 1917. In the novel John Carter is an American Civil War veteran who is miraculously transported to Mars, known to its inhabitants as Barsoom. He is immediately captured by a race of green-skinned barbarians who are 12 feet (4 meters) tall, having six limbs and long tusks. Formerly an Earthlike world, Barsoom has become less hospitable to life over the millennia. As its oceans evaporated and its atmosphere thinned, Barsoom's inhabitants became hardened and warlike, constantly fighting one another to survive. Barsoomian society thus devolved into partial barbarism. Carter befriends the Green Martian Tars Tarkas and rescues a humanoid Red Martian princess, Dejah Thoris, from the Tharks, a belligerent tribe of Green Martians. He gains the Barsoomians' respect with his superior strength and fighting ability. Carter ultimately enlists the Green Martians' assistance in winning a war waged by Dejah Thoris' people, and he saves all Martians from asphyxiation when the planet's atmosphere factory malfunctions.