For almost 35 years, director Andrew Stanton has been reading Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “John Carter” book series. The 1970 sci-fi series paints the world of tattooed Martians, enormous green creatures and the super-human Earthling sent to save them.
After Stanton’s success with films like “Finding Nemo” and “WALL-E” Disney made Stanton’s childhood dreams come true when they offered the animator a chance to write and direct “John Carter” for the big screen.
“I’ve read the books my whole life. I’m probably one of the more rabid fans,” Stanton said. “I told Disney I’d be happy to make it once I finished ‘WALL-E’ and suddenly they said yes.”
To write the story, Stanton enlisted the help of friends Mark Andrew and Micheal Chabon to turn the series’ first three books into a feature lengthed movie.
“I don’t like to write by myself. I need objectivity, I need people to bounce stuff off of,” Stanton said. “I’m always smarter and funnier when I’m working with somebody else, so I got myself two people that were huge lovers of the books growing up as well. Not only did I get better writing by having these two guys there, but I had people that knew all the material and cared about it.”
Perhaps Stanton’s biggest challenge was transitioning from the world of animation to the world of live-action film. While the two genres may seem to be very different, Stanton looks at them as one.
“People think that when you work on an animated film that you’re talking to a bunch of computers,” Stanton said. “I actually talk to two hundred people every day when I’m working on an animated film.”
While Stanton may have used “John Carter” as his first live-action platform, the director was able to utilize his work on animated films on the set as well.
“Making ‘John Carter’ was like making two movies,” Stanton said. “One was the live-action side that took almost a year to make and then we had to go back and add the computer graphics to the film. Half of my main characters were computer generated.”
Even though Stanton’s childhood dreams may have been fulfilled with “John Carter,” it was the story’s driving theme that really spoke to him.
“There’s a timeless human aspect about ‘John Carter.’ It’s about having a person find their purpose in life who was misguided to begin with,” Stanton said. “I think that’s what all of us are searching to do.”
