People have been trying to make Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom novels and his iconic hero John Carter of Mars into films since the 1930s, and it wasn’t until 2012 that Andrew Stanton released his adaptation. Now, a Presentation Reel of another adaptation has surfaced, and showed us what we might have gotten.
The reel, put together by director Kerry Conran (Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow), shows off some fantastic visuals from concept art that had been created for the adaptation, as well as some of the action and fight scenes that we might have gotten.
All and all, there’s some real similarities in character design, but this looks like it carries a bit more of a pulp feel to it. Harry Knowles, of Ain’t It Cool News, who had been set to produce the film, recently uploaded the reel for the world to see.
In the end, Andrew Stanton lobbied Disney to acquire the rights, and created his own adaptation, which had some trouble at the box office and with audiences, even as it’s gained a sort of cult following. The rights to the film have since reverted back to the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and they’ve announced their intentions to return their hero to the movies at some point in the future.
[Collider]