Oh sure, shirtless guys on Mars?! COME ON!! That is so not believeable, first off its wicked cold.. On top of that there is like.. no atmosphere so how is he supposed to breath. I see something like this and I wonder how dumb you have to be to enjoy things that are so FAKE!!!

disney is not the only one loosing enthusiasm for the narnia movies. i don't think i'll be interested at all unless they somehow manage to make an R rated 'magician's nephew'

after the iron giant and the incredibles anything that bird i'm looking forward to 1906 with great interest. the incredibles was easly the best animated film produced by an american studio i have ever seen.

Uhhh, those space suits don't look pressurized.

Regarding the Narnia info, I feel like if you sign on to make three of the seven books into movies, you kind of ought to do all of them.

Regarding John Carter, it would be sweet if all the dialogue was classic highfalutin Burroughsian, but I have this bad feeling that they'll "jazz it up for the kids" instead.

The John Carter of Mars series was kind of awesome in a bizarre, almost-scientific way.

Like, there was atmosphere on Mars, but the gravity was way low. So the Martians were really big, but not as dense as John Carter, who could kill them by punching them in the face.

@Garrison Dean: Maybe they're Canadians, eh? The cold don't bother them much q

Considering John Carter would just kind of wake up on Mars, they could always claim alternative universe. Works for me. Bring on Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium!

@moff: Eh maybe they can do the rest direct to DVD.

I mean 7 feature films is a lot to expect. Particularly when some of the source books are notably weaker then the others.

I thought Favreau or Rodriguez were attached to John Carter?

What happened to them?

Hey the guy has anticipated the metrosexual look (nary a sign of hair below head level), but I'm really waiting for the inevitable "that chick's fat" post's.

there is a reasonably good history of the film here:
[en.wikipedia.org])

unfortunately it's Disney/Pixar, which means it's very unlikely to be PG-13...let alone an R, which it should be...

@bjarmson:
Honestly, if they cast a woman who looks exactly like that, instead of the usual semi-anorexic, I suspect most of the male population will be happier watching it.

If you haven't read this series...you should. It's fantastic! Seriously it's like Pirates of the Caribbean, Princess Bride, and flash gordon rolled into one. I can't wait, and to be honest I trust Pixar with it more than I do Rodriguez

I would rather it be Brad Bird, but I trust Pixar.

Pixar is a blamless, holy creature.

@Plague:

I heard that too, but I guess it was just a rumor.

The Sky Captain director developing it for a while, but he dropped out too.

Kinda glad there, I wanted to love Sky Captain, but there was just something lifeless about it.

I for one am eager to see the Barsoom novels hit the screen, with the usual trepidations about Hollywood being clueless about what makes them work.

Comments about applying real science to the Burroughs novels also miss the point. If you want to get picky, start with how a civil war soldier can go to sleep in a cave and wake up on Mars.

The Burroughs universe has its own rules. Just nod your head, say "take me away" and enjoy. Otherwise we will get into biological harangues about multi-armed Martians, what is the deal with swords and of course, how do green Martians and humans evolve together in such a hostile environment.

Burroughs is part of that wonderful "pre-science" age of SF. What will kill the franchise quicker than anything is trying to make it all conform to "real" physics and biology.

It's much more fun to imagine how a guy can defeat someone who is great with four swords at once.

So I'm crossing my fingers. The Pixar folks are sharp.

Take me away.

@Seth L:
I think the lifelessness was intentional, it being a play on old serials and such.

Wish that Conran would make something else...

@Plague: Thank god its not Rodriguez. I like his stuff ok, but something tells me this needs a little more finesse and visual attention than his normal 48 Hour Film Festival approach to making movies.

"Disney is losing enthusiasm for the Narnia movies, and probably won't make any more after Prince Caspian and Dawn Treader"

LOL, I felt the same way about the books...

@Garrison Dean: Ah, but the women are drawn sooooo well, let's make an exception just this once!

I wasn't aware there was a 1906 movie being produced, something to look forward too!

IF Pixar get's this over the Mouse, I'd be over the moon. Only wanted to see Barsoom on the big screen FOREVER. hellers1155 has got the right attitude, this would be fantasy not science-fiction. It would be nice if they kept the period feeling of the original pulps (Carter being a Civil War soldier, the old-timey dialouge) rather than "jazzing it up for the kids" like what they've done to H.G. Wells and Verne lately. I'm keeping fingers crossed on all eight of my green arms.

@Grey_Area: 8 arms? Isn't that, like, twice what you should have?

And thus, does the great Harry-Knowles-as-movie-producer experiment comes to a sudden end.

For now.

Hmmm, I can't quite wait, but if its a success how long till they start ruining all our sci fi works?

I'm glad ole James Bolivar diGriz hasn't got the big screen treatment yet, I wouldn't be able to live if they bodged the Rat.

If Frazetta's art serves as a template for the ladies, I will be SO into this. I always had a weak spot for ol' Johnnie-boy's adventures.

@Bal-Cleric: Slippery Jim is long past due for the big screen treatment!! All we need is Uwe Bol and Tom Cruise to agree to work together on it and...

That's not funny.

That art is so nostalgic. Does anyone know the artist(s)?

There has been some sort of coup at Disney, with Eisner out and Steve Jobs in. The "Enchanted" Movie was indication of a new regime. Actually funny, and a little bit snarky.. I think "Shrek" scared the pants off of Disney, and the underachievement of Narnia didn't help.

With all the cute people Disney has on its payroll, why they picked those four lumps for Narnia remains a mystery.. A very bad movie. For the money they spent, an incredibly bad movie.

@hellers1155: I agree with to many of these points. ERB's John Carter series was one of the things that got me into fantastic literature in general, and science fiction in particular. To see it as a feature has always been one of my great entertainment hopes.

Mind you, it has to be done right. I work right down the street from Pixar and I trust those people, but I'm desperately concerned about the fact that it'll be their first live-action movie. I hope they bring in some experienced outsiders for key production jobs.

@AmishJohn: Dang! Well, being a savage Tharkish nomad kinda precludes any time for arithmetic lessons.
This news and the possible "Steam Wars" from Mr. Balmire makes my NostalgiaSpecFic (is there a real term for this?) heart all a flutter. Now if only Sr. DelToro would begin production on "The Mountains of Madness"...

Am I the only one who didn't like them. I will read almost any sci fi fluff BUT the John Carter series was painful. Every battle was the greatest battle he fought. Every enemy was the evilest enemy. Every woman was the most beautiful. By about the fourth or fifth ... it was enough.

@Garrison Dean:
And here I thought one has to be literate to enjoy science fiction. Dean you showed me that all you need is a basic grasp of astronomy.
[www.gutenberg.org]
You're welcome.

@gintmfgb: Its ok to not like them gint. They absolutely are formulaic in some respects, but you have to remember where and most importantly when, they come from: first off, these were made in 1912-14 (I forget the exact year), and they were written for pulp magazines, with one chapter per issue, iirc. They weren't actually books until later, so each chapter had to be exciting (and of course, what's more exciting than enormous battles?). Also, they were pretty much made to appeal to kids and teenage boys back then as well, so they could get away with it. Its too bad you don't like them though. Get past those minor hang-ups, and they are really good.

Plus, any good Barsoomian lover knows the first three are the ones you should really read (there are a few other ok ones, but the first three are best, imho).

@All_Thumbs: or maybe it was all a dream? I kinda expected him to wake up on earth again every time I opened a new book. Or maybe he's dead and gone to Valhalla? Did they ever explain that? how many books are there, anyway?

I trust Pixar (even with live action) but I hope they don't try to soften it for the kids. If they can be as brave as Beowulf was and just go all out, it could be amazing.

I don't know what kind of censored editions you've been reading but in the Barsoom stories I've read all the women go around naked, except for their jewelry. Most of the illustrators have sort of forgotten this (Frank Cho being a notable exception) and I fear that the movie is gonna stray away form the original text also..

i know we all tend to complain when books we love get manhandled at the Lenny-like hands of movie studios. But this is one case where i will seriously boycott pixar for life if they ruin what is one of my favorite science fiction series by turning it into a bad movie. This had better not turn into something that the pixar folks look back on as an experiment in live action cinema.

Tars Tarkas Jeddak of the Tharks is pleased. I can't wait for this. Pixar surely has there work cut out for them though.

I'd say it was too long a wait for 2011 or 2012, but first book will be running on 100 years old by that time... So I guess 3-4 more years isn't so bad.

And if Disney is losing interest in making 3 of the 7 Narnia stories into films... How are they going to fare when it comes to a 11 part serial?

@irrezolut: They probably only make the first three, as those all have an interconnecting story arc and main characters.

As far as Barsoomian clothing goes, there seems to be plenty of difference in how much and how little barsoomians wear. For example, they certainly can (and do) walk around stark naked (with weapons, though) without a thought, but they also wear silks, harnesses, and furs, especially if its cold out. Methinks (and I am not glad of it) that there they won't have any nudity in the movie, and will probably add more clothing to the characters, possibly to make the rating lower. Then again, I would love for them to go a kind of happy medium: like, no true nudity, but LOTS of revealing wear (and revealing in ways we aren't used to seeing; for example, we've all seen a woman wearing a bikini, which shows the top of the breasts, but have you ever seen a dress that reveals the bottom of them? Its quite striking at first, so they could use visual tricks like that to make it seem like there is more being seen than there really is being shown. We'll have to see though.