It's coming next month. After being "in production" for nearly ten years this time, and after a failed attempt to make the movie back in the 1930's.
It's based upon Edgar Rice Burroughs very first novel, published just before WWI. Burroughs had not even invented Tarzan yet, so this is the Ur-Burroughs adventure story. I read it as a child, and it goes even farther back. I read it in hardback Grosset and Dunlap volumes that had belonged to my father.
John Carter is an American civil war veteran prospecting for gold in the Arizona desert. By some not well explained mystical means he is transported from the Wild West to Mars, a living Mars with breathable air, plant life, animal life, green Martians (10 feet tall, six limbs, nasty dispositions), and red Martians (just like Earthmen except for red pigmented skin). John Carter meets and falls in love with Dejah Thoris, a stunningly beautiful red Martian princess. The rest of the book is filled with rip roaring adventures and in the end, John Carter's strong right arm and keen Martian long sword win the day and he and Dejah Thoris marry and live happily ever after.
As a child I thought the Mars stories were even cooler than the Tarzan stories. Everyone went around well armed (longsword, short sword, radium revolver) at all times. There were exotic riding animals, radium powered flyers, deserts covered with red ocher moss, and vast cities, some living and some dead. Burroughs books served as inspiration for three generations of science fiction novels and movies. Star War's Princess Leia owes a lot to Dejah Thoris.
Anyhow I will go and see the movie when it comes out next month. I hope they do it right.
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