From Deadline:
Hollywood is in a tizzy over the early tracking which just came online this morning for Walt Disney Studios' John Carter opening March 9th.
"Not good. 2 unaided, 53 aware, 27 definitely interested, 3 first
choice," a senior exec at a rival studio emails me. Another writes
me, "It just came out. Women of all ages have flat out rejected the
film. The tracking for John Carter
is shocking for a film that cost over $250 million. This could be the
biggest writeoff of all time." I'm hearing figures in the neighborhood
of $100 million.
Well, that's not good. I've noticed there have been what seems like several million new John Carter TV spots and clips released (one of which is above), but other than in my head, there doesn't seem to be much real excitement for it. I still think the movie will be good -- possibly even excellent -- but it does seem like no one's going to watch it. I admit, the idea that John Carter is going to making $100 million while James Cameron's Avatar, a pale simulacrum of John Carter with a scoop of Dances with Wolves thrown in for good measure made over a billion dollars, is proof that we do not live in the best of all possible nerd worlds.
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That is by far the best trailer I've seen for it. But still the green screen work and human/CG character interaction looks downright terribly executed. Almost painfully. And if that's the stuff they're putting in the trailers, I fear the worst...
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Is that seriously part of the movie? Every time I see something more from John Carter, I cringe a little and want to see it less.
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See, this is the problem with Disney's marketing. They should be educating people like poor Smokay here who don't realize that this is based on a book that came out about 90 years before Attack of the Clones and that has influenced science fiction and fantasy for the past century. Seriously, Disney, it's like you don't want this movie to make money!
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I don't know. This isn't that different from when Disney made live action films like Treasure Island or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I think that this is the sort of thing Walt would have approved of.
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Here's a better trailer. Of course, it's fan-made, demonstrating that the marketing people at Disney should be replaced. http://youtu.be/-BxeHQY1NuM
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Yeah, well, um, Avatar...Most aliens in American science fiction are Space Indians. And by "most", I mean "virtually all". Sure, there are the obvious ones: The Sand People, the Ewoks, and the Klingons all come to mind. (Star Trek also has the Bajorans and actual Indians who were left on another planet by aliens. Kirk even fucks one of them.) The opposite side, of course, has humans as Space Indians, as seen in War of the Worlds and its numerous imitators. My personal favorite alien is Admiral Ackbar. Whenever someone asks "You said that girl's a winkte. What's a winkte?" I can now say "Indians make the best traps." And for that, I thank him and the 13-year-old boys at 4chan.
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Doesn't help that every TV spot make it look exactly like "Attack of the Clones".
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What's Crystal Skull?
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I plan to go see it. Im a long-time John Carter fan, even since I read thge books when I was a kid. Which was so long ago that kids read books for fun. But thats neither here nor there. Get off my lawn.
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Then you haven't heard about Brave. It remains to be seen what will become of Brave, but this could be right up Pixar's alley. That said, Walt Disney is rolling in his grave, either way. I mean, have you SEEN the life-action television shows they've done?
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But what about Tucker and Dale vs Evil?
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So last year's stinker was MARS NEEDS MOMS. This year, another Mars movie has massive fail potential. The Red Planet seems to equal box office poison (except for that one films I totally can't recall).
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You talking about Project 880? Yeah, that story did sound far more complex and nuanced. No way it could have all been condensed to a three hour film, though, so I don't blame them for cutting it down. A (graphic?) novelization of that full story would be nice, though.
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I think Rob's <s>busy chopping his </s>onions <s>to the Fall of Cybertron info and</s><b>are visually pleasing to</b> the robo-orgy that is Bruticus.
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A huge amount of people are a bunch of pretentious twits, so I don't see why this has any bearing.
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Well, the "[Protagonist] and [General Plot Point]" has been tied to kid/family movies by Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and a slew of other movies.
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Check the international trailers, or at least the ones that aren't shown in the US.
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This. So very much this. Also, it's also comparable to the Indiana Jones franchise (forget Crystal Skull).
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I see they're taking notes from Uwe Boll.
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They could've used "John Carter and The Princess of Mars", but I guess that title's too long for addle-minded studio execs.
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"John Carter by Pixar" fits together worse than "John Carter by Disney". I could see Disney tossing out a crappy knockoff, but A Princess of Mars just doesn't seem like a good Pixar idea at all.
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Avatar is based on a much better script/idea that Cameron realized he'd never get made into a movie, so he excised chunks of it entirely, simplified other chunks of it, and made the main character the greatest hero ever. The result was a clone of a well-worn narrative trope that made mad buckets of money, and likely only made it even more unlikely that things like the original script/idea would ever make it to movie screens intact.
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A vampire and or werewolf, probably. Can I just say that I was more drawn to Avatar by the thought of dragons fighting spaceships than the thought of fucking blue cats?
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Dune, A Man Called Horse, Dances with Wolves, Pocahontas, Ferngully, The Smurfs, Poul Anderson's Call Me Joe, ... at this point, can't we just say it's based on well-worn narrative tropes, without direct reference to any particular story?
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I read the same. They didn't want "Princess of Mars" because they thought that boys/men wouldn't see it. They didn't want "John Carter of Mars" because they believed that girls/women wouldn't see it... So, they went with boring, old "John Carter," and now it seems almost no one wants to see it (neither boys/men nor girls/women). That "John Carter" title is just too generic. They're really overthinking it. And that's what greed, laziness and extreme thinking will do... For people who don't know anything about the book series behind the movie and just go to the theaters on a whim, "John Carter" isn't exactly going to leap off of the marquee. But "John Carter of Mars"?? If I had gone to a theater on a whim, without having researched movies beforehand, that would likely grab my interest.
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Mars Attacks?
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Well, the title of the book it's based off is "A Princess of Mars," but they changed the first part to John Carter because they believed men wouldn't see a movie with "princess" in the title. Yep.
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I blame Avatar for the entire annoying 3-D craze. I have only seen a handful of movies in 3-D, but not a single one felt like it was needed. It just feels like a way for studios to charge more money for a ticket. I only hope 3-D dies a quick death.
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It was explained elsewhere that Disney dropped the "of Mars" part of the title because they believed most women wouldn't want to watch a sci-fi movie, but would go see a film which had a title consisting only of a character's name. Seriously.
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I suspect the reason few are interested in this is because it looks like EVERY CGI PUKE-FEST MOVIE OF THE PAST FEW YEARS!! Besides, much like "Scott Pilgrim" not many familiar with the source material to carry it through.
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much better
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John Carter <s>of Mars of My Na'Vi Loincloth Of Potimus' Rectum of Wonderment and the Adventures Through Appa's Colon Gem-Encrusted Dowel vs. the Erotic Drippage of Charles Dexters Ward</s><b> probably has chlamydia.</b>
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"Will the real John Carter please stand up?" There is a Twilight Zone episode titled: Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up?
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This motherfucker right here.
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Sadly, I bet they're all saving their ticket money for Transformers 4.
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I would just like to say, I'm a 33 year old woman and I am excited about John Carter. I read all of my Dad's old Mars books when I was about 10 and found a box of them in one of my Grandfather's storage buildings. I guess this just means we have to go that first weekend in case it does a quick death in the theater run.
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What a shitty clip. Any desire I had to see it just disappeared. And those musical cues when he jumps just reeks of little kid Disney crap. Do not want.
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Best way to get women to like this movie, rename it JUNE CARTER and digitally replace the hero with Reese Witherspoon.
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I guess you pointed that out. But anyway...resume bitchery!
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Bitch, bitch, bitch... What the hell was Avatar but a great white hope dressed in blue? Just spun to the left.
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Attack of the Clones = AotC or AOTC.
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"Avatar sucks" blah blah blah. Avatar had FANTASTIC 3d which was its purpose. It wasn't supposed to be Saving Private Ryan or Bridge on the River Kwai. It was supposed to show off the future of 3d and it did that very well. I was entertained by Avatar.
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I completely agree, Zimon66, that the marketing makes it look like a Conan/Immortals/Clash of the Titans/etc knock-off. If they'd bothered to showcase an homage to Whelan's iconic 'A Princess of Mars' cover art in the advance press, I'd be booking tickets. I might rent it on video, but I'm not paying $$$ to be as disappointed in 'John Carter' as my kids were in 'The Lightning Thief'.
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I've long thought similar things. How ironic. If they had just called it "John Carter of Mars," something they absolutely didn't want to do since "Mars Needs Moms" was a failure, a general storyline would have been easier to pinpoint. "John Carter" is just too generic. It could be the name of anyone, for any type of movie. Is it a medical drama? A cop procedural movie? John Carter Law Offices? John Carter, star quarterback? John Carter, I Want Your Vote? Will the real John Carter please stand up?
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I hated ATOC- so since this looks like a partial ATOC ripoff (at least the creatures), I'm not inclined to see it. Shame on them for ripping off a bad movie. I get the feeling that all the geeks will show up anyway (maybe b/c the want to see how bad it is) and the girls will go because of the lead actor and MAYBE it gets that Titanic thing going with the female repeat viewings and WHAMMO- it starts making Titanic money. It's getting to the point where it's fashionable to rip on this movie. Even bad news is news, right?
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edgar rice burroughs is one of the greats of science fiction. i think disney should have emphasized in its marketing that this story is by the author who wrote tarzan-that would probably help. the mars books were great and the movie probably will be too. however, i do not care what anybody else says i am looking forward to seeing this movie, and i will also buy the dvd when it is released
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I'm waiting for your list of awesome mars based movies post total recall...episodes of futurama don't count.
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Now I'm wondering if the studio changed the name to just John Carter becuz Asylum came out with Princess of Mars, starring Antonio Sabato Jr and Traci Lords, in 2009.
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See, I didn't get any of that from the trailer. Trailers should give you some idea of what the story is about. All I got from any of the trailers for this movie is that there is a shirt-less man named John Carter who is on Mars and is the Chosen One. If movies want me to see them, they better start giving me a decent reason to.
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Rob how the fuck do you know if John Carter is even any good? You immediately think it is better than Avatar (the highest grossing movie of all time) just because you have a personal vendetta against it...you're coming off like a moron here.
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But I can see why no-one would give a crap about this film if they're not familiar with the material... because it's been marketed so, so poorly.
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He didn't say it was widely known. He said it should be. And it should.
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Miramax was an independent studio before Disney bought it from the Weinsteins brothers in the 90's. The Weinsteins ran Miramax INDEPENDENT of Disney until 2005. Tired of Disney BS they left the company and Disney sold the studio 5 years later. When the Weinsteins ran Miramax we got Kill Bill, The Crow, Kidz, and Clerks. With Disney calling the shots we get Ella Enchanted and Gnomeo & Juliet.
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In defense of regular people, "John Carter" is a SHITTY TITLE FOR A MOVIE. How about "John Carter of MARS". Crazy, I know but "John Carter" sounds about as exciting as "Tucker" or "Dave".
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That's what's so sad. This isn't by Disney really. It's by Pixar.
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Come to find out that Miramax actually released a movie called "Bride & Prejudice". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bride_%26_Prejudice
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Another problem (in my opinion - by way, I'm a 45 year old female) is that it looks too much like a Conan knock-off and not a very good one. I've read the books and love Michael Whelan's cover art (example: http://daltonchadeverett.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/michael-whelan-john-carter-of-mars-thuvia-maid-of-mars1.jpg). Based on what I've seen of Disney's interpenetration, they dropped the ball BIG TIME. They have money and top of the line animation. Why does this look like it was filmed in a back lot on a dime? Nothing much about it screams "Barsoom".
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Look around the comments section, a huge amount of people are saying they don't know these books. Just because something strongly influenced sci-fi and fantasy does not mean it's as widely known as you think.
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Now that I think about it, P&P by Asylum would be a pretty good movie. Your treatment kinda reminds me of Ecks Vs Sever.
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Yeah a movie like this seems to come out once every two years or so. A similar one being the last Time Machine remake. They look like they would have a couple of cool parts, but over all they seem very generic and forgettable. They all have a similar visual style too, come to think of it...
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The clip included here reminds me of a higher budget episode of the Kevin Sorbo Hercules. As some one who really doesn't know anything about the books, the trailers are a bit of a mess, and don't really have any 'BAM YOU GOTTA SEE THIS' factor. It just comes across like Disney is hoping to cash in on the Prince of Persia fans again, but in doing so the presentation of the movie is really unclear and uninteresting.
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Oh gawd, I'd *totally* see a Pride and Prejudice by the Asylum. You know they'd make it about two secret agents, Liz Bennet (Codename: Pride) and Fitz Darcy (Codename: Prejudice), who end up having to stop an alien invasion from taking over the world.
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Really, they should have called it "John Carter and the Princess of Mars." Sounds exciting and romantic and vaguely Harry Potter-esque and appeals to everyone.
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The first time I saw a John Carter commercial I thought it was a spoof of the genre for the first 10 seconds or so...I'm not going to see it.
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I'd much rather see a Guardians of the Flame movie.
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See, this attitude bugs me. Why? Because KILL BILL was also a Disney film. Miramax is a Disney studio. Some people think "Disney = Kiddie" and just can't get that out of their heads, but the fact is that Disney has put out plenty of adult-oriented flicks, and the mouse doesn't appear in any of them. Hell, even if you want to talk about films with the actual Disney name on them, as opposed to studios that are just part of the Disney family, you can still bring up Pirates of the Caribbean, which was great fun, not dumbed-down, and certainly had its share of mature themes.
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I'm not flaunting my ignorance, Kanto Kan. I'm simply pointing out that I know nothing of John Carter and am not even remotely intrigued by what I've seen - and, thus, this may be other "ignorant" folks' reactions. That's all I'm saying. I would never flaunt ignorance - that's an ignorant thing to say ;)
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That or those were all just terrible movies that happened to have Mars in the title...
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I wonder if it has ever occurred to these studio executives that American audiences in 2012 aren't as willing to automatically accept a poorly-veiled white savior colonial fantasy as they may have been when the John Carter narrative began in the 1900's. Or even as willing as when Dances with Wolves, Avatar, District 9, etc. came out. Scratch that, I know they only care about the monies. But the more film studies try to tell the same story with the same subtext, is it any surprise that the response isn't overwhelmingly positive?
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This is probably where Lucas got the idea of the AotC scene in the first place.
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It's because he's The Librarian
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Make this movie John Crichton of Earth (a big budget Farscape film with all the original actor/ess', hell start the story from scratch since the made for tv movie ended so depressingly) and I'm in, as for John Carter I'm not familiar with the source material and the vague clips I've seen only confuse the situation so I'll probably wait till the dvd comes out like I did for Avatar.
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Come on, man, why flaunt your ignorance? Anybody with even a passing interest in the history of sci-fi and fantasy should know these books. They are among the foundation stones of the whole genre.
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The only think missing that Dune has that a Man Called Horse doesnt, is the natural resource thats only available in one spot aspect of Avatar/Dune. But yes also a very good candidate for "what avatar is really a copy of"
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I was able to sit in on the first public and press viewing of this movie and i cannot come up with enough praise for the film. Its going to be a real shame if this movie bombs in the box office, it has so much to offer!
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Also with overt overtones of Ferngully.
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John Carter <s>of Mars of My Na'Vi Loincloth Of Potimus' Rectum of Wonderment and the Adventures Through Appa's Colon Gem-Encrusted Dowel</s> <b> vs. the Erotic Drippage of Charles Dexters Ward</b>
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best friend's mother-in-law earned 12811 dollars a month ago. she is making an income on the computer and moved in a 541600 dollar house. All she did was get lucky and make use of the information made clear on this web site .... L­azy­Ca­sh10.c­o­m
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Heck, even the soundtrack is a #@(%ing limited edition! They won't even print extra copies of the soundtrack!!!
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Two points-- First, Disney typically sucks at predicting movies, especially Pixar movies (which this was until they decided they didn't want to "mark" the Pixar brand with a live-action film). Disney thought WALL-E was going to be an enormous flop. Second, they can't give up on this because they never believed in it to start with. Ask yourself this--where's the massive wave of John Carter merchandising? Where are the action figures and the plush Woolas and the accessory dress-up kits and all that? Disney didn't even think it was worth licensing toy rights. DISNEY, the greatest merchandising whore in the film industry. I'm still going to go see it, damn it, but it's frustrating that the studio stopped backing it before the first trailer.
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John Carter <strike>of Mars of My Na'vi Loincloth Of Potimus' Rectum of Wonderment</strike> and the <strike>Adventure Through Appa's Colon</strike> <strong>Gem-Encrusted Dowel</strong>
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And because <s>people</s> Rob wants to <s>plug into have their his</s> <b>do it nasty with</b> <s>his veggies washed by the Na'Vi</s> <b>the German Porn</b> E.T. while <s>going Super Saiyajin</s> getting <s>crammed into</s> a Like Like PENIS crammed into his PENIS <s>on their his toilets</s> as a my little pony chops <s>his He Man's Elmo's onions as</s> Potimus <b>onions while TRON</b> inserts <b>his Manhattan</b> into his experimental anus <s>:/ :) :D :9 :O</s> <b>XD</b>
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Definitely the Stallone version.
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I guess I am an old fogey (over 35), and a I remember a man called horse. Here's the plot summary of the short story that was written in 1950 The protagonist is a British aristocrat who is captured by a Native American tribe. Initially enslaved, he comes to respect his captors' culture and gains their respect. He joins the tribe by showing his bravery and, later, gets back his dignity by marrying his owner's daughter, killing rival Indians and taking their horses. Taking the native name "Horse" (he was treated as a horse), he becomes a respected member of the tribe.
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We all thought that when we were kids.
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The only John Carter I believe in is Dr. John Carter of Cook County General's ER. And not just because he also played Steve Jobs.
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And because <strike>people</strike> Rob wants to <strike>plug into</strike> have <strike>their</strike> his veggies washed by <strike>the Na'Vi</strike> E.T. while <strike>going Super Saiyajin</strike> getting <strike>crammed into</strike> a Like Like PENIS <strong> crammed into his PENIS</strong> <strike>on their his toilets</strike> as a my little pony chops <strike>his He Man's</strike> <strong>Elmo's</strong> onions <strong>as Potimus inserts them all into his experimental anus</strong> <strike>:/ :) :D :9</strike> <strong>:O</strong>
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John Carter <s>of Mars of My Na'Vi Loincloth Of Potimu's Rectum of Wonderment</s> <b>and the Adventure Through Appa's Colon</b>
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John Carter <strike>of Mars</strike> <strike>of My Na'Vi Loincloth</strike> <strong>Of Potimus' Rectum of Wonderment</strong>
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This is a tricky one, my wife said she's not too interested in seeing this, and she read A Princess of Mars. I think it just looks like a big digital mess, whereas the environments and creatures in Avatar were a bit more compelling.
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Thanks, I'm always a little hazy with timings of stuff. Like when I was younger, I had no idea what a TV schedule was and thought that all programmes came on at random- like it was just pure luck what came on next... Ye gods, I was an idiot.
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I think that block of polystyrene 'rock' is more common than the Wilhelm Scream.
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And because <s>people</s> Rob wants to <s>plug into</s> have <s>their</s> his veggies washed by <s>the Na'Vi</s> E.T. while <s>going Super Saiyajin</s> <b>getting crammed into a Like Like PENIS</b> <s>on their his toilets</s> as a my little pony chops <s>his</s> <b>He Man's</b> onions <s>:/ :) :D</s> <b>:9</b>
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Too bad there's no Acklay or Nexu. That giant Mantis-Xenomorph-Godzilla lovechild and that space manticore were the only good thing about AOTC other than Christopher Lee and Samuel L. Jackson. :/
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In all honesty, i never knew much about John Carter but it looks like they tried to take us back to a simpler time when people didn't use their hair to fornicate with eachother...and now it'll be ruined because of women.
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I thought this was the Get Carter sequel but with a bigger budget?
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And because <strike>people</strike> <strong>Rob</strong> want<strong>s</strong> to <strike>plug into</strike> have <strike>their</strike> <strong>his</strong> veggies washed by <strike>the Na'Vi</strike> <strong>E.T.</strong> while going Super Saiyajin on <strike>their</strike> <strong>his</strong> toilet<strike>s</strike> <strong>as a my little pony chops his onions</strong> <strike>:/ :)</strike> :D
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John Carter <s>of Mars</s> <b>of My Na'Vi Loincloth</b>
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Honestly, I don't even know what John Carter is based on and the trailers didn't make me want to know. Furthermore, a movie called 'John Carter' might as well be called 'Bland McDull' instead because it couldn't possibly sound more boring.
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I'm sorry, but it just doesn't look very good IMHO. The geek in me wants to like this movie and be all in, but it just looks like a poor film based on an excellent book. I'll stick with the book. There's no poorly rendered CGI in my imagination.
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