John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood

by Sellers, Michael D.

  This external package of John Carter as the damaged loner is comfortingly familiar to the 98% of viewers whose frame of reference is not the Burroughs books, but rather the accumulation of expectations gleaned from movie heroes of the last several decades. Reluctant, self-absorbed, resisting the call to action, yet skilled and capable, it could be argued (and would be, by Stanton and his creative team) that Stanton’s John Carter of 2012 is as familiar and easy to root for to modern audiences as Burroughs more classic rendering was to audiences in 1912.

  Meanwhile, to those familiar with the John Carter of the novels, it is a dramatic change and one that alters some of the basic chemistry of the story.

  Interestingly, however, while Stanton’s Carter may have a radically different demeanor than Burroughs’ Carter, the argument can be made that the character as revealed through choices and actions shows many more similarities than differences to Burroughs’ John Carter.

  In Arizona, Stanton’s Carter finds himself in a moment where Powell has been shot by Apaches. He has no allegiance to Powell; in fact Powell is his antagonist at that point in the story. But at great personal risk, Carter returns and saves Powell — an act worthy of ERB’s John Carter and a character defining moment which Stanton clearly expects the audience to note.

  In the movie, as in the book, Carter attempts to elude Woola. As in the book, Woola is injured, although in the movie it is the Tharks, not white apes, who injure the Calot. Carter defends Woola, in the process showing compassion.69 This is another clue to the fact that Stanton’s Carter in spite of his refusal to acknowledge any loyalty or allegiance, is nonetheless operating from a code of honor very similar, if not identical to, to that of the novel’s John Carter.

  Next comes the arrival of the warring Zodangan and Heliumite warships. Carter: “That don’t look like a fair fight,” another evidence of his sense of a code of honor. Then he sees Dejah Thoris, realizes there are humans, and intervenes in the conflict, first to save Dejah Thoris (chivalrous behavior), and then to conclude the conflict in favor of Helium — the party who was on the receiving end of the “not a fair fight” comment.

  Next he is awarded Dejah Thoris, as in the book, and then is given the name Dotar Sojat with Tars Tarkas exulting, “he will fight for us!” As in the case with Powell, Carter immediately rejects fighting for anyone, and says no, he does not fight for the Tharks. But when he is told that unless he does so and becomes a Thark chieftain, the safety of “your red girl” (Dejah Thoris) cannot be guaranteed–he does the chivalrous thing and accepts appointment as a Thark chieftain, for no reason other than to protect Dejah Thoris. Again, in spite of “I don’t fight for anyone” words — John Carter’s choices and actions are largely consistent with the book.

  Up until this point — Carter has displayed courage by trying to escape Powell; displayed honor by saving Powell; courage and chivalry by saving Dejah Thoris and taking on Sab Than’s airpower; and chivalry by accepting a Thark chieftainship purely to protect Dejah Thoris. His protestations that he doesn’t want to take up a cause are meant to be read not as true expressions of Carter’s character — rather that are the conscious expression, while his actions those of a chivalrous warrior, same as John Carter of the novel.

  To those who grew up with Burroughs’ “perfect knight” John Carter, it doesn’t “feel” quite like John Carter. Yet when it is finally revealed what the source of the “damaged goods” nature is — it turns out that it is precisely the honor and loyalty that defined Burroughs’ Carter that is devastating the conscious portion of Stanton’s Carter. It is his loyalty and love of his wife and family that has left Carter damaged–and it is loyalty and love of the wife and child that impedes his ability to connect with his new circumstances.

  In the end, Stanton’s John Carter and Burroughs’ John Carter are largely one and the same -- it is just that Stanton’s John Carter arrives there at the end of the story, while in Burroughs’ version he is there from the beginning.

  Pre-Production: Fateful Decisions

  In the earliest stages of pre-production, Andrew Stanton indicated in several interviews that he was unsure whether and to what degree John Carter of Mars would be live action, animated, or a combination of both, nor was it clear whether it would be brought into the marketplace branded as Pixar, Disney, or something else.

  Stanton’s first comments on the project came in Toronto in June 2008 at a June 8, 2008, roundtable interview promoting the June 29 release of Wall-E. In that session, Stanton provided the first acknowledgment that John Carter of Mars would be his next film, and that he was in active development of the project.70 The reports across the internet spawned by this first report all described the upcoming John Carter of Mars as a Pixar film, although there is no indication that this was any more than an assumption, given that it was, at this point, an all-Pixar operation consisting of Stanton, Pixar writer Mark Andrews, and Pixar General Manager Jim Morris as producer.

  On June 19, 2008, Alex Billington, writing in FirstShowing.net quoted Stanton on the issue of whether John Carter of Mars would be live action of animated:71

  One of the biggest questions surrounding the project is whether they're planning on staying CGI or integrating live action. Stanton starts off by saying that "we honestly don't know," but adds that "it's clearly got to be a hybrid of some sort." As for what to expect, I suggest you don't even begin to start guessing what that might mean. Pixar always tends to push the limits of our imagination and I think that's what we can expect here. He explains that this first year is all spent "worrying about the story" and asserts that thinking about the visuals and figuring out how the film will look is a distraction from the actual writing. Instead, "this year is just about writing the script to make it as good as it can possibly be.”

  Stanton’s next comments came in a June 25 interview with “Capone” of Ain’t It Cool News, also part of the Wall-E rollout. In that interview Stanton said:72

  We’ve learned from the Pixar Methodology: don’t get distracted about how [you are going to do it] and all these things everybody wants to ask; just make a great story and everything else wants to fall into place. So in all other specifics we aren’t even going to decide upon until next year, once we have a script that we think is worth making.

  On the topic of how it would be distributed, Stanton told Slashfilm’s Peter Sciretta in an interview published June 27, 2008:73

  There’s been no discussion about exactly how it will be distributed or what moniker it will be under. Everything is going to be derived based on whatever we end up with script-wise, so this whole year is just about the script. In 2009 will be much more involved in the OK, exactly how is this going to get made? And exactly how are we going to present it? Nobody is worrying about that until there’s a script.

  Although Stanton seemed uncertain whether the film would be live action, animated, or a combination of both, at least within Disney’s legal department it was understood that the film was, per contract with Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., to be a minimum of 60% live action. Disney legal was also aware that Disney had licensed the first three books, and had three years after the first film was released to launch a sequel, or the rights would revert to the Burroughs estate.

  By January 2009 Stanton was certain enough of the answers to the questions about live action versus animation, and distribution label, that he was able to give an interview to Sci-Fi Wire’s Fred Topel, after which Topel wrote:74

  Stanton confirmed that Carter, based on the books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, will be live-action. "Yeah, I think that's the only way," he said. "I mean, there are so many creatures and characters that half of it's going to be CG whether you want it to be [or not], just to realize some of these images that are in the book. But it will feel real. The whole thing will feel very, very believable . . .

  Asked if it would be a Pixar film, Stanton answered:

  Well, it's not being done by the Pixar crew. It's being done by Disney, and I'm sort of being loaned out. We're sort of
using any element that we need to make the film right. We're not being purist with Pixar, but Pixar's a brand that you have to trust that's for all ages. This story of John Carter is not going to be an all-ages film.

  Perhaps Stanton’s most intriguing comments came in a lunch with “Quint” of Ain’t It Cool News and Todd McCarthy of Variety in Santa Barbara on January 24, 2009, where Stanton was to be a member of the “Writer’s Panel.” Quint reported in AICN:75

  I was able to attend a luncheon before the panel and sat with Tom McCarthy and Andrew Stanton. Of course John Carter of Mars had to come up . . . here’s what’s going on with JOHN CARTER OF MARS:

  --It is live action.

  --[Stanton]:“It is huge, it is exciting, it scares the crap out of me. It’s either going to make me or break me.”

  -- It is NOT a Pixar movie, rather a Disney film. However Stanton’s creative team from Pixar are all still involved.

  -- The style is going to be very real, not highly stylized.

  He said that 20 some years ago that version could have been made, but since Star Wars and a whole glut of science fiction and fantasy films have ripped off giant portions of JCOM over the years the only option he sees is doing a straight up, realistic version of the story. He described it as if it was a National Geographic crew that stumbled across a preserved civilization while exploring a cave. Very real, but awe-inspiring . . .

  --He has his second draft done and will be casting soon.

  Thus as Stanton moved from “the year of the screenplay” in 2008, to early pre-production in 2009, the emphasis shifted from the relentless focus on the story, to questions of design, technology, casting, and -- ultimately and crucially -- budget.

  Why did John Carter cost so much to produce?

  And what was the path through the production investment ended up where it did? Was it, as the press widely reported, a function of an inexperienced director and “costly reshoots” to correct mistakes? Or something else?

  First, as is typical, at the time Dick Cook optioned the property for Disney neither he nor anyone had more than a general “back of the napkin” assumption about what it would cost to produce, and he pegged that number at $150-175M, which would put it a notch below the most expensive Hollywood tentpole productions like Pirates of the Caribbean, but still in the upper reaches of production investment. Was this a reasonable assumption as of 2007-2008 when he made it?

  As far back as the 1990s the budget for the McTiernan version of John Carter of Mars had topped out at $120M. But a large portion of that had been to pay the A-List fees of Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts and there was little likelihood that Stanton would demand, or even want, that level of star. With Stanton directing and throwing Pixar style animation into the mix, it was hard to estimate what the outcome might be. Pixar films then in production were Ratatouille ($120M), Wall-E ($180M), and Up ($200M). But how much animation would there be? How much live action?

  At the outset, $150-175M was an assumption, not a budget. No real budget could even be attempted until a screenplay was complete. Only then could the exhaustive exercise of preparing a film budget be accomplished, a process that includes breaking down each page of the script into its component parts--which cast members are on screen; what sets, props, and other elements are required; what special effects are needed to depict what is on the page; what stunts; what special equipment; and so on. Once the breakdowns were completed, a shooting schedule would have to be produced. And only then could actual budgeting be attempted -- and even that would have only assumptions in terms of key elements like the cost of onscreen talent, since typically (although perhaps not in the case of John Carter) most of the cast are not signed until after the first thorough budget is complete.

  So the project moved forward through drafts and redrafts of the screenplay in 2009, and casting was initiated, before a true thorough budget could be completed. In March 2009 Stanton learned the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon--whose ‘beat’ as a writer was comic books and the like anyway--had been as big a Burroughs fan as Stanton and Andrews were in their youth. Ever the collaborator, Stanton approached Cook about bringing him on board as a writer to rewrite the script that Stanton and Mark Andrews had been working on to that point. Cook agreed. It brought in a top-level writing talent; however, it also had the effect of delaying the completion of the screenplay and hence left the budget un-finalized. A true final budget would now have to await Chabon’s rewrite. Michael Chabon only began his revisions to the screenplay in April 2009, and Taylor Kitsch was signed a month later -- and when it was announced in June 2009 that Kitsch and Lynn Collins had been signed, the budget figure floated by Disney was $150M.76

  Cast Design

  From the beginning, the issue of who would be cast in the lead role of John Carter was a front burner item, with Hugh Jackman put forward early on as a prime candidate. But Stanton wasn’t interested. In his first public interviews about the project in January 2009,77 Stanton acknowledged he was actively seeking to cast the film, but Jackman wasn’t on his radar: “I know everybody wanted Hugh Jackman forever. But he’s only getting older and more exposed now, so it’s a tough call. I’m your typical filmmaker, I want to find the next best unknown.” Names that were being discussed, Stanton acknowledged, included Josh Duhamel and Jon Hamm -- but it was “wide open.”

  Then there was the matter of how to animate the 9-12 foot high Tharks. Burroughs had written the Tharks to be 15 feet high; however to make the Tharks that tall would eliminate the possibility of shooting them using the CGI motion capture technology that Stanton wanted to use -- technology that would allow real actors, working on stilts and wearing motion capture cameras and suits, to interact with the human actors rather than forcing the human actors to act to a designated spot, with the CGI characters filled in later.

  On the casting front, Stanton became interested in Taylor Kitsch immediately after seeing him in an episode of Friday Night Lights. He felt that Kitsch carried the kind of “troubled soul” complexity that he needed for John Carter -- yet had the physicality to pull off the heroic aspect of the character that would be needed as well.78 “I wanted to hide the heroic John Carter .... That's what I saw in Taylor when I saw him in Friday night lights. I saw this character who was trying to hide a lot and I thought he made that so interesting ……and there are just some actors, they are more interesting to watch as they listen than the other actor who is talking. That's a rare gift. And that was one of the reasons I knew I wanted him. . .”

  For Dejah Thoris, Stanton was taken in by the audition performance of Lynn Collins, a Texas born, Juilliard trained actor who brought to the part not only her classical training, but a black belt in an Okinawan style of karate. Collins had spent her summers growing up in Japan, where her father was an expert in Samurai swordsmanship, and afforded Collins an opportunity to become familiar and comfortable with swordplay.

  Stanton’s decision to cast relative unknowns in the lead roles was the kind of decision that, under “normal” circumstances, would be subject to highly focused critical review by either a senior producer on the show, or by the studio chief or head of production supported by the head of marketing. The casting of leads is, after all, as much a business decision as a creative one since stars are a principal means of branding a film.

  But perhaps because the budget had not yet been set and Cook was still thinking in terms of $150M; or perhaps because iStanton and Pixar equities made Cook inclined to give him what he wanted; or perhaps because Cook was distracted by the fact that at this point he was under pressure--attack, almost--from Disney CEO Bob Iger -- for any or all of these reasons, neither Cook nor anyone else outside the immediate production team subjected Stanton’s choices to critical review.

  While it is easy to criticize this decision in retrospect, the fact was that Stanton had been extraordinarily successful with Wall-E, an unlikely sci-fi animated picture in which even the voice talent was largely composed of “no-name” talent. If Stanton, coming of
f Wall-E and Finding Nemo before that, wanted fresh faces in the leads, there would be little or no resistance.

  Finally by late summer 2009 Chabon’s pass on the script was complete, and a true budget could be set.

  The budgeting process was even more complicated than normal because in the case of John Carter, relying so heavily on special effects -- the VFX category is expanded into its own sub-breakdown sheets delineating the particular VFX required for the particular scene. Although the breakdowns sheets are normally prepared by a producer, line producer and/or a production manager, the director’s input is required because the script is typically ambiguous on many points, and the director must clarify how many extras; details about the set, etc.

  As for Stanton - he had no clue about what the budget would be and wasn’t ashamed to admit it. Budgeting wasn’t his thing, and later he would admit that he never gives much consideration to budget, since both Finding Nemo and Wall-E had been expensive to make, and had turned out successfully.

  When it came time for a budget to be created, producer Jim Morris, whose “day job” was General Manager of Pixar, took the lead. Morris had come to Pixar from George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic, where he had a long history going back to the early 1990s and had worked as a production executive or “senior staff” on a long list of films. After coming to Pixar, he was credited as Production Executive on Ratatouille, then as Producer on Wall-E. John Carter would be his second film as producer, and he would be the senior producer on the project. Lindsey Collins, also from Pixar who had worked with Stanton for 10 years, was brought on board as a second producer. And Colin Wilson, who had been an executive producer on Avatar and would bring that expertise to the project, was also added into the producer mix early on.