Life Delights

You may have heard that Disney and Pixar are collaborating on a John Carter of Mars movie franchise due to be launched in 2012. But did you know there have been several previous attempts to bring the story to the silver screen? John Carter is one of the most popular of writer Edgar Rice Burroughs’ heroes but though Carter was the first to spring from Burroughs’ imagination he was quickly overshadowed by Tarzan of the Apes.

Carter afficianados have long wanted to see their favorite swashbuckling hero from the age of pulp adventures come to the big screen but things have just never really worked out. Burroughs himself attempted to bring John Carter of Mars to film in the 1940s, but the animated project never got off the ground. Another attempt to create a John Carter of Mars movie in the 1970s also fizzled.

Although the first books in the series are now in the public domain, the characters are still owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. — a company E.R.B. himself set up during his lifetime to administer his literary properties. Hence, attempts to develop movie projects around the John Carter character have been frustrated by legal barriers and a lack of technological resources.

Fans have waited a long, long time to see the John Carter character brought to life. Here is hoping that the wait has been worthwhile. We may not get another chance to see these great adventure books brought to life again if this project fails.