This is awesome news to me on a personal level, mostly because I STILL find reruns of Malcolm in the Middle to be utterly hilarious.
But Bryan Cranston–beleaguered patriarch Hal from the show mentioned above, and also of several other pieces including Breaking Bad–will be expanding outward from television into movies, and his newest target will be John Carter of Mars.
He’s looking to play a Civil War soldier in this one, and he’ll be joined by Willem Dafoe as an alien, and Mark Strong as a shape shifter. What’s more, this is also the live action direction debut of Pixar‘s own Andrew Stanton.
Now I don’t know about you, but that’s just brutally cool.
Think about that for a minute! Willem Dafoe! Bryan Cranston! Directed by PIXAR’S own ANDREW STANTON! Admittedly, the whole is never exactly equivalent to the sum of its parts, but man, if this doesn’t turn out much worse than the sum of its parts, it should still be pretty good.
Walt Disney Pictures signed Willem Dafoe to star with Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins in John Carter of Mars, the fantasy epic to be directed by Wall-E director Andrew Stanton, is based on “A Princess of Mars.”
Dafoe gets to play the role of Tars Tarkas, a fierce green Martian warrior, who’s bizarre among his savage race because he has the ability to love. Tars forms an alliance with John Carter played by Kitsch. Carter is a damaged Civil War vet who finds himself mysteriously transported to Mars. Collins plays the Princess of Mars.
Tars fights battles alongside Carter through the entire series of Edgar Rice Burroughs books, so he will be in all the sequels.
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I discovered some more casting reports from Andrew Stanton’s John Carter of Mars today. Thomas Haden Church may join the cast, too. The source comes from First Showing based on an appearance by Church on Jeffrey Lyons’ show ReelTalk to talk about appearing in Imagine That. When asked about his upcoming gigs, Church mentioned, “I’m probably going to do a huge science fiction drama at Disney called John Carter of Mars in the spring and that’s a very dramatic role.”
Having sliced and diced their ways through X-Men Origins: Wolverine, stars Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins are now set to travel to Mars in the live-action adaptation of John Carter of Mars.
Based on “Tarzan” author Edgar Rice Burroughs classic sci-fi stories, the film will center on a civil war veteran who finds himself mysteriously transported to Mars, where his experience of the warring races force him to rediscover his humanity.
Kitsch is set to play the title character, while Collins will play Dejah Thoris, heir to the throne of Mars’ Helium kingdom.
Mark Andrews is set to direct. They hope to start filming by the end of the year.
