When the Utah desert meets CGI

Vancouver Sun ~ January 17, 2012

A bewildered John Carter has awakened into this world - a world in which, to his amazement, he can leap to huge heights, a world in which four-armed creatures nine feet tall stride the landscape. That world is Mars - or rather "Barsoom," which is the name bestowed on it in the 1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs novel on which John Carter is based. The production moved to Utah following six months of interior filming at England's Shepperton Studios, and for Stanton and his colleagues, the state's bleak and forbidding landscapes were vital to their needs.

Furthermore, the cult status of the Burroughs Mars books helped the filmmakers overcome any resistance from Utah's Bureau of Land Management, when it came to filming in protected areas. "That's my favourite book," a bureau official exclaimed. It later turned out that Utah governor Gary Herbert was also a fan of A Princess of Mars, the Burroughs novel on which John Carter is based - so much so, that he visited the set during filming. "So we had no problem," Stanton remembers.

Stanton's own reaction to this terrain is striking and significant. He's a major figure in the world of animation - long a creative force at Pixar, where he directed two of its most acclaimed computer-animated features, Finding Nemo and WALL-E. But John Carter, a project that has been a personal obsession since childhood, marks his entry into live-action filmmaking, and what he has experienced during a production process that has lasted more than two years is a personal sense of liberation.

That awareness began in England in 2010, when he began shooting in a huge interior set at Shepperton. "I'm such a movie geek," he says now; as he filmed scenes in "this old ruined temple," it was as though old schoolboy fantasies had exploded into rich, fulfilling life. But when he found himself in the raw, forbidding terrain of Utah - treading in the footsteps of such earlier filmmaking titans as John Ford, Michael Curtiz and Sergio Leone - the impact of what he was attempting emerged with greater force. There was this sense of a new-found freedom: In contrast to the frame-by-frame meticulousness of animation, live-action filmmaking offered an exciting immediacy. "I felt like a kid who had been stuck indoors for 20 years and was finally allowed to go outside. I was in sandstorms, below-freezing weather, 130-degree heat, but I didn't give up, because I was so excited to be seeing stuff made on the same day at the same hour. Oh my god, I couldn't get enough of that."

The film opening March 9 is seen as a gamble by industry watchers because of its origins - despite a fervent cult following, this is a largely forgotten cycle of novels by the creator of Tarzan - as well as its staggering budget and the casting of little-known Canadian actor Taylor Kitsch, best known for Friday Night Lights, in the title role. But Stanton's own enthusiasm for the project is unassailable. So is the continuing wave of audience interest in a project that has been surrounded by mystery and secrecy since it was first conceived.

John Carter is exactly the sort of project that sends the crowd at the pop-culture convention, Comic-Con, into a frenzy of anticipation. But it was significant by its absence from the 2011 convention in San Diego. The reason was simple: The makers and marketers of this film are anxious to control the message - and they didn't trust an event notorious for its volatility. Besides, Stanton, unlike many in the industry, doesn't see much "upside in showing and talking about stuff early," especially in the circus atmosphere of Comic-Con.

"There are just so many people there, and they're all yelling louder and louder and louder," Stanton says. He didn't want that atmosphere to "ruin" his film's chances, "because I knew this was a little different and a different flavour. Everybody says they want something original - but it's very tough to give the correct first impression when it is different." So what makes John Carter different? Stanton says it's like initially making a live-action film on the sound stages of Shepperton and the salt flats of Utah, and then spending the next 18 months making an animated film. Or, to put it another way, he's in the final stages of delivering a unique hybrid "that's half CG (computer-generated) and half live action."

But again, it's more complex than that. Despite his impressive track record in the world of digital animation, Stanton is an old-fashioned guy who sees David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia as his artistic touchstone: "It's in my DNA. It's my favourite movie." So, although he employs motion-capture techniques, computer animation and all the paraphernalia of today's cinematic technology, he also has gone the old-fashioned route - using wires for John Carter's astonishing leaps, and embracing old-fashioned production design whenever possible.

"For me, every tool in the tool box should be valid," Stanton says. "As much as I could, I used anamorphic lenses, because I wanted the film to feel that it came from another era." For him, filmmaking is like magic. "To me, some of the best magic tricks are the simple things which nobody would expect, because they think everything's gone high-tech. I'm just going to use whatever tool is necessary. I don't care whether it's new or old. That's not why I'm in it."

So, despite some 2000 high-tech visual effects, there was a reluctance to resort to computer-generated backgrounds. Rather, the aim was to use real locations and landscapes. "As much as possible, we decided to shoot in actual locations and minimize the amount of digital set creation, so that the audience would always feel like they were grounded in real places," producer Jim Morris commented during filming "We hope this will add an additional layer of authenticity that will heighten the believability and realism of the film." For example, the ruined remains of a Martian city figure prominently in the movie. Those were digitally created in post-production - but against the natural splendour of Utah. It's a way of creating what co-producer Colin Wilson calls "our little slice of Mars." "Our philosophy has been to use practical locations with real sets and set pieces that create a cornerstone for our digital world." More>>>

The bulletin from the International Society for Meteoritics and Planetary Science, naming the meteor Tissint, said that the rocks came down on July 18 last year. "A bright fireball was observed by several people in the region of the Oued Drâa valley, east of Tata, Morocco," the investigating scientists said. "One eyewitness, Mr Aznid Lhou, reported that it was at first yellow in colour, and then turned green illuminating all the area before it appeared to split into two parts. Two sonic booms were heard over the valley. In October 2011, nomads began to find very fresh, fusion-crusted stones in a remote area of the Oued Drâa intermittent watershed."

Astronomers believe that something big smashed into Mars millions of years ago, sending debris spinning out into the solar system that occasionally ends up here on Earth. "It's Christmas in January," former NASA sciences chief and director of the Florida Space Institute Alan Stern told newswire The Associated Press. "It's nice to have Mars sending samples to Earth, particularly when our pockets are too empty to go get them ourselves."  Tata meteorites are on sale at between $375 and $650 a gram, while today's gold price is hovering around $53 a gram. . . . There are  hopes that the rocks could give some indications of whether or not the Red Planet could sustain life. More>>>

 In the African jungle, conservationist Damian Aspinall searches for Kwibi, a lowland gorilla he hasn't seen for 5 years. Kwibi grew up with Damian at his Howletts Wild Animal Park in England. When he was five, he was released into the forests of Gabon, West Africa as part of conservation programme to re-introduce gorillas back into the wild. Now Kwibi's 10 years old, much bigger and stronger. Will Damian find him? Will Kwibi attack him? 

While Tarzan is the better known of the two, John Carter came first, appearing in the novel, "Under the Moons of Mars," published in the February 1912 issue of THE ALL-STORY, a pulp magazine published by the Munsey Company.

In August of this year, PulpFest will celebrate "100 Years of John Carter" with panels, presentations, and more. Please visit www.pulpfest.com for further details.

And don't forget, Disney's major motion picture, JOHN CARTER, will be premiering in movie theaters on March 9th.
http://www.pulpfest.com/

With his opening trilogy - considered one of the landmarks of science fiction - Burroughs created a vast and sweeping epic. Captain John Carter of the Confederate Army is whisked to Mars and discovers a dying world of dry ocean beds where giant four-armed barbarians rule, of crumbling cities home to an advanced but decaying civilization, a world of strange beasts and savage combat, a world where love, honor and loyalty become the stuff of adventure. The world of Barsoom. 

- New EVO 2.0 body with over 35 points of articulation
- Helmet
- Cape
- Hand-made leather chest harness
- Hand-made leather waist, arms, and leg harness
- Real Leather boots
- Pistol with side holster
- Full metal sword and scabbard
- Four (4) pairs of hands

JOHN CARTER OF MARS™,
PRINCESS OF MARS™ 
AND DEJAH THORIS™ 
Owned by EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS, INC. 
And Used By Permission.

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LOS ANGELES—Denise Darcel, the French-born actress known for vampy roles in such films as "Vera Cruz" and "Thunder in the Pines," has died. She was 87. Darcel's son, Craig, said Monday that she died Dec. 23 at a Los Angeles hospital from complications from an emergency surgery to repair a ruptured aneurysm.

After coming to the U.S. in 1947, Darcel starred opposite several leading men in a string of films in the '50s, including "Battleground" with Van Johnson, "Tarzan and the Slave Girl" with Lex Barker, "Westward the Women" with Robert Taylor and "Young Man with Ideas" with Glenn Ford. She most famously played a vivacious double-crossing countess in 1954's "Vera Cruz" opposite Burt Lancaster and Gary Cooper.

Darcel is also survived by another son, Chris.

TARZAN ON TV From the Ron Ely Site:
The release of "Tarzan" on DVD happens in the early part of this year. Warner Bros. is re-mastering all the shows in High Definition and will release them to correspond with the 100 year anniversary of the publication of the first Tarzan book. They will be released in two sets possibly a few months apart. 

The original Lord of the Jungle returns! If you thought you knew the story, think again! For the first time in its 100 year history the classic Edgar Rice Burroughs story, Tarzan of The Apes is told UNCENSORED! This series will capture the savagery and action of the original while expanding on it with new elements! The story begins in the late 1800s, John Clayton, Lord of Greystoke, and his wife, the Lady Alice, are left stranded on a remote African coast. They must fend for themselves in this savage world, and the fact that Lady Alice is pregnant doesn't make things any easier! The violent saga of Greystoke is written by Arvid Nelson and illustrated by Roberto Castro, and featuring covers by Alex Ross, Lucio Parillo, Ryan Sook, and Paul Renaud!