Just in time for the 100th anniversary of its first publication, "Tarzan" author Edgar Rice Burroughs' "A Princess of Mars" gets the 3-D blockbuster treatment from Disney under the revised title "John Carter." This new franchise should have been a sure thing, with a novel that has endured in readers' hearts, a vividly imagined universe that has influenced everything from "Star Wars" to "Avatar," and a talented director, Andrew Stanton of Pixar, who had scored big with "Wall-E" and "Finding Nemo."
Nevertheless, "John Carter" is projected to become Disney's biggest flop ever, underperforming wildly at the box office to the tune of an estimated $200 million loss, with all plans for sequels put on hold. Of course, this is Disney, the same company that cunningly resurrected its biggest flop of a previous decade, "Tron." The Mouse knows how to monetize.
But how could you go wrong with Barsoom (as Burroughs called his fictional Mars)? Barsoom, where former Confederate cavalry officer and Southern gentleman John Carter wakes from a trance to find himself among the savage, towering, green, multi-limbed Tharks, a nomadic tribe devoid of human empathy. Barsoom, home to the "incomparable" Dejah Thoris, regal red-skinned princess of civilized Helium and captive of the Tharks, who — like every occupant of the planet — appears clothed in nothing but her jewelry. Barsoom, with its classic mix of futurism and atavism, where the mysterious Ninth Ray powers great warships through the sky, and where caravans travel the desert wastes on their monstrous eight-legged Thoats.