Boggled

[caraig]

John Carter of Mars

I've been told the following facts about this movie, which may or may not be true. [Comments by me in brackets and italics.]:

• Script by Ehren Kruger (The Ring, North America version) [So... Salvador Dali on PCP and LSD does pulp SF?]
  
• Directed by Kerry Conran (Sky Captain). It was going to be directed by Robert Rodriguez, but when he quit the Director's Guild of America to make Sin City, he had to be replaced. [Not exactly very promising here; see below. Also, why did Rodriguez have to quite the DGA to make Sin City?]
  
• Harry "Ain't It Cool" Knowles is a producer. [Which tells you that THIS MOVIE is GOING TO HAVE a LOT of CAPITAL letters. AND exclamation POINTS!!!!!!! In all seriousness, I didn't even know he was a producer.]
  
• To be filmed in Australia. [Because nothing says 'post-atomic holocaust wasteland' or 'Mars' like Australia.]
  
• Effects by Alphaville (The Mummy, Scorpion King) [No complaints here, they did some decent effects for both these movies.]
  
• Paramount hopes to make it the Carter series a "tent pole" franchise. [I'm assuming that this means Paramount hopes to make John Carter it's next "Star Trek," i.e. milk it for all it's worth until it's drier than the aforementioned post-atomic-holocaust-wasteland/Mars/Australia.]

Well, having never read much of Burrough's John Carter stories, I'm going to hold off on the prediction (however accurate it might be) that Hollywood is going to butcher it. The extent of my knowledge of that series comes from Heinlein's The Number of the Beast. I know it's considered one of the classics of pulp SF, of that subgenre known as 'sword and planet' science fiction. There's just very little that you can do to a pulp classic with modern film-making and modern Hollywood trends without making it into a comedy or a parody.

Someone on sfconsim-l, made an interesting observation:

Scott Palter contends that in a true and just universe, you could teach most of Filmmaking 101 by doing a compare and contrast of the first 10 minutes of Sky Captain and the first 10 minutes of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Oooh, burn. And yet oh so true.

Nothing more for now. Pax.

Comments

[nukewolf.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I'm not encouraged by Harry Knowles' name on the project. Roger Ebert didn't have a good go of it either. I'm not sure I get the gist of that observation at the end either. :)

[ruggels.livejournal.com]

Directed by Kerry Conran (Sky Captain). It was going to be directed by Robert Rodriguez, but when he quit the Director's Guild of America to make Sin City, he had to be replaced. [Not exactly very promising here; see below. Also, why did Rodriguez have to quite the DGA to make Sin City?]


Kerry Conran, is an unknown quality, he made one film (1) right out of Cal Arts, and that film was a "proof of production concept", more than it was a drama. he set himself the challenge of making a film putting in all the visuals he thought were 'cool" and trying to get them to work, and THEN making a story out of the parts. Old Serials, Old 30s film, Fleischer Superman Cartoons, et all. So with a completed film, some experience, and a script that he didn't write, there is little indication of how exactly this will go.

As to why Rodrigues quit the Directors guild, was that during ramp up to film Sin City, Rodriguez, talked to a thouroughly burnt out Frank Miller. Miller had be used and abused by Hollywood, and he didn't want to come back. Rodriguez thought that not only was Miller's approval necessary, but his active input on the making of the film, visually, was the way to give it that sort of punch. So rodrigueze wanted to Credit Miller as a Co-Director. Since Miller is not a member of the DGA and the Guild denied that Request. so Sin City was made as a "non - Union" project. It was a minor success at the box office, and is still talked about seriously by critics, so I think rodriguez's judgement was sound, but since he has not re-applied for membership in the guild, he is ineligible to direct any studio financed film, due to a Studio-D.G.A. agreement. this suits Rodriguez fine, as he has his own company (Troublemaker Studios), and prefers to make films without studio oversight, and work with his friends regardless of their union membership or not.

Scott

[collie13.livejournal.com]

Oooh, burn. And yet oh so true.

I agree, that was cuttingly perceptive -- especially since those first few moments in the zeppelin were the best in the movie. After that we meet the heroine, and the disappointment starts.

I suspect JCoM will have "issues" much like Sky Captain did, which is why I'm not sure Conran was a good choice -- for two reasons. First, pulp does have a plot and a decently hate-able villain, even if it is very simple (such as the old "guy meets girl, guy loses girl, guy fights villainous monster, guy gets girl back"). Unfortunately SC had no plot nor villain to speak of.

Secondly, pulp doesn't translate well to a modern sensibility, I think -- it smacks too much of deus ex machina. I remember reading the entire John Carter series in high school (as Hillary said of Everest, "It was there" ;), and being incredibly underwhelmed. Perhaps if I'd read it as a young child it would have had more wonder to it?

[caraig.livejournal.com]

I didn't even know Ebert tried his hand at moviemaking. =)

The observation at the end is basically... Sky Captain was visually pretty but blew chunks as a story. Indiana Jones didn't do any fancy special effects (the "What's in the Box?" scene notwithstanding) but it was very good storytelling.

[caraig.livejournal.com]

Oh, that explains that. Thanks!