clips and trailers: John Carter (2012)

Traditionally, I haven’t expected sci-fi epics from Walt Disney Pictures but after TRON: Legacy (a movie which really deserved to be seen by more people, damn snow!) that view has had to change. The Mouse, it seems, is happy to go to seek out that final frontier…

… Not that this has anything to do with Mickey Mouse.

Instead, John Carter (formerly John Carter of Mars) is based on the series of Mars adventure stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs, published between 1917 and 1943. In the books Mars is known as Barsoom by it’s inhabitants, a variety of different coloured Martians, and the planet is portrayed as one troubled by strife as the various races fight for the scarce resources available. It’s not entirely clear if the races will all be different colours in the film but I thought I saw some blue ones and some green ones. To be honest I’m surprised I’ve never heard of the series, in any case the books certainly seem ripe for film adaptation*.

As far as I can gather, this movie is drawing from Burroughs’ first book, A Princess of Mars but there may be elements from some of the others. The premise is simple enough… John Carter is a Confederate Captain in the American Civil War who find himself somehow transported to Mars and landed in the middle of a heated conflict. He soon discovers that he may be the only person who can bring peace to the tortured but majestic planet.

I’m always up for a sci-fi adventure but I’m very curious to see what audience they’re going to target. Watch the trailers and you won’t be able to miss the sniff of Avatar (despite the very different setting) and I would consider Avatar as an older, at least 12+/15+ audience… But then again it is Disney and in my eyes TRON: Legacy ended up being pitched younger than that. Are we looking at a 12A or a PG here…? I don’t mind either way but it will, of course, shape how I personally view the film.

update (05 March 2012): Many more clips, trailers, featurettes etc added. Also the cert is confirmed as a 12A in Ireland and the running time is confirmed at 132 mins.