Thought these two might be of interest:-
Immortals - 11/11/11
John Carter - 03/09/12

John Carter looks like it could be pretty good. Willem Dafoe as Tars Tarkas ftw!

I was just about to post the John Carter film.

Looks fantastic. I can't believe they're keeping the old fashioned sword and planet, barechested look. Could be seen as cheesy by the masses, but damn, bravo for going for it straight up! He still looks to be a civil war soldier as well, though I couldn't tell if his uniform was grey or blue.

I see one movie a year in the theater. This is the one for 2012.

I actually got chills watching the John Carter trailer, and I've all but given up on modern genre films. It looks like they're doing it right. That scene where he's fighting on the dais is just as dead on the money as it gets.

I'm really hoping that this is something of a vanity project for Pixar/Andrew Stanton...as in, Disney/the pursestrings holders sort of stepped back and put their faith in what the filmmakers wanted to do with it, trusting the makers of past successes to make bank.

It's really an odd property...it's in the public domain, there's virtually no cultural awareness of it beyond _maybe_ "that other book the Tarzan guy wrote" at best, and it's really, really old fashioned.

But damn...airships, Tars Tarkas...Carter doing the sketchbook...the war...there's so much of it I _never_ expected to see on film. But then again, I never thought we'd see a John Carter film for that matter.

It's definitely whole hog sword and planet, which is really kind of shocking. It didn't look like Deja Thoris was nude though, which she should be throughout.

Immortals, no way. It's Tarsem, that guy that did The Fall and The Cell. Empty-headed, pretty stuff with zero substance. And it looks like a way-too-late cash in on 300...or Clash of the Titans. It will not be well recieved.

Well, to keep the good vibes rolling, here's The Thing.

Now, I consider the original to be part of my holy movie trilogy, Carpenter's The Thing, BTiLC, and EfNY, so I really had low expectations about the prospect of doing a prequel.

However, I think this kind of looks good, I'm thankful that the casts' wardrobe and hairstyles aren't _too_ modern and look like it could possibly be from the same era as MacReady and gang.

The only problem I'm seeing is that it looks a little too familiar. Almost a scene for scene remake in some cases. That's what did in EfLA for me.

Yeah, I'm also puzzled as to why they're calling it a prequel.

Michael: Oh well, guess Immortals'll just be eye candy then. As for John Carter being Burroughs' other novel, I wonder how mainstream Tarzan is these days. How long ago was the last film, 10-15 years? Even that probably would have low potential today. Thankfully Carter looks promising.

John Carter's preview looked like a home movie from someone's vacation to Zion National Park. I'm pretty surprised they didn't sex up the Martian landscape with some CGI so you wouldn't expect Chevy Chase to come around the corner in his family truckster.

This is a movie with 10,000 pounds of potential. Just a great story for the big screen. Apparently Disney didn't have the budget to put a red filter on the background in post-production, but with any luck the acting and scope of the drama will make up for that.

Oddly enough when I think Edgar Rice Boroughs I think John Carter. Tarzan never clicked with me. My brush with fame is my Grandmother's "I tutored Johnny Weissmuller" story, but I never make the connection to ERB for some reason.

S.

By the way, I think it's pretty obvious that John Carter is the classic story that inspired James Cameron's Avatar.

I'm in agreement with Sag - when I think Burroughs, I think John Carter. I am sitting here typing this at my desk with the entire paperback set, complete with Boris artwork, directly in front of me on my bookshelf. Epic works.

I mentioned a lot of these in my response to Ken's latest column, and I don't see this one mentioned: Contagion.


I like these kinds of flicks, so it looks cool.

Then there's Cowboys and Aliens, which is just silly, but you got to love Harry Ford and Dan Craig.

There's also the new Sherlock Holmes flick, Game of Shadows. I liked the first, so I'll like this too.

They better not screw up the second Sherlock Holmes. The first one restored my hope in the return of good adventure movies (no, The Mummy doesn't count), kind of like Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl did. And we all know how that one ended, they never did a sequel, although it had so much potential.

Does Steve Zahn age?