John Carter of Mars

billc

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At screenrant there is an article about the approach of a possible trailer for the John Carter Warlord of Mars movie that they are finally making. I loved the first three books of this series, as I think anyone who really likes sword work in literature. I hope the movie doesn't stink.
 

MA-Caver

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I'm kinda surprised that no-one (to my knowledge at least) ever tried adapting Edgar Rice Burroughs work (beyond Tarzan).
I too hope it will be worthy of the author, always loved the man's work.
 

David43515

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MA Caver, You took the words right out of my mouth. I grew up reading both the Tarzan books and the John Carter books. I loved anything by Burroughs. I hope they can do them justice.

The stories are brilliantly told,but he was a product of his time. Meaning sometimes the tone was kind of racist by today`s standards. There was never any hatred expressed, but sometime you got a condisending tone that they might have to edit around.
 

MA-Caver

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MA Caver, You took the words right out of my mouth. I grew up reading both the Tarzan books and the John Carter books. I loved anything by Burroughs. I hope they can do them justice.

The stories are brilliantly told,but he was a product of his time. Meaning sometimes the tone was kind of racist by today`s standards. There was never any hatred expressed, but sometime you got a condescending tone that they might have to edit around.
True but even the famed Weissmuller movies showed elements of stereotyping and racism. Blood thirsty black tribes wanting to kill and eat white men or other horrible means of dispatching a hapless "great white hunter".

Yet it's been a sense of frustration of mine when they change a story around a bit to ensure nobody is going to be offended. Roots was shot fairly close to the original novel. Avatar brought up shades of racism and nobody complained... probably because they weren't from that planet.

Hopefully people will accept it for the time that it was written. It helps us to remember how far we've come.
 

girlbug2

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I'm kinda surprised that no-one (to my knowledge at least) ever tried adapting Edgar Rice Burroughs work (beyond Tarzan).
.

Been a few years since I read the Martian books but I recall there were a lot of near-naked people in them. Could it be that is the big reason we've never seen an adaptation?
 

Rich Parsons

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For history on why no movies and such, some books fell out of copy right law and others were still protected. I believe the whole John Carter series was protected as the later books were still protected. I will have to call up my publisher friend and ask him again, but that is what I remember from preivous discussions.
 
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billc

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I think one of the reasons it took so long is that one of the main characters is a twelve foot tall, four armed green alien. Not to mention that almost all the creatures encoutered have multiple limbs as well. I always thought the covers of the books were great. The one I remember is the one with Tars Tarkas and John Carter fighting the plant creatures and white apes while they were standing against the big rock. It was a great, action oriented cover.
 

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granfire

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Now I am regretting that I donated all those books to a book drive....
 

Sukerkin

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I was going to say much the same, tez :D.

"At the Earth's Core" and "The Land that Time Forgot" used to be summer holiday staples when I was a lad ... when I was sadly too young to appreciate Caroline Munroe properly :lol:.
 

MPC1257

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I thought the movie was great!

My wife and I went to see the movie Saturday afternoon. To my surprise, she actually liked it! She was only going to humor me, but was able to follow the story and kept asking me if it was like the book. I last read the John Carter books when I was in grammar school, which I graduated from in 1971, so I told her that it was obviously not exactly like to book, but from what I remembered kept as close as it could to the book. I enjoyed it and am glad CGI has come so far as to even allow the thought of making this movie possible. I would definitely recommend it.
 
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