John Carter

[The Elderly Kid]

Yeah,I know it mostly takes place on Mars (Barsoom, actually, Mars as imagined by Edgar Rice Burroughs at the start of the 20th century) but footage just released shows a nifty opening sequence taking place in Arizona in 1868. There's a cavalry fort that has one of those strange two-story blockhouses with the second story rotated 45 degrees from the lower one. I've seen pictures of those blockhouses in the east during the CW, but never in the west afterward. But it least shows somebody on the production is a mid-19th century military enthusiast. It premiers this coming Friday, March 9. Looks like it's going to be lots of fun. I loved those books as a kid.  BTW, Burroughs actually served in the cavalry in Arizona right after the Apache wars.

[44caliberkid]

The summer between 5th and 6th grade, two friends of mine and I read about every Edgar Rice Burroughs book he wrote, starting with the Tarzan books and then all the John Carter's.   I never could figure out why they never made movies of them, but I recognized all the pirated scenes in Star Wars and Avatar.   Burroughs gave all the science fiction writers who read his stuff plenty of material for the 70's, 80's and 90's.
   I just hope they do a good job on this one.   The books are movie scripts in themselves, but like the Conan movies, it seems screen writers are too tempted to depart from the original material.

[Major 2]

I have always like Edgar Rice Burroughs

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[Mogorilla]

Thanks to Gutenberg.org, I am rereading them all right now.  If you have not checked out gutenberg.org, do so, loads of old material free, but donate if you can.  Between Burroughs, Doyle and Robert E. Howard (and of course Homer, never too far from my 1926 copy of the Illiad), you are talking the literature of my teen years.   I am hoing that it is not a flop, as I would like to see some of the other books made, not to mention a resurgence in popularity for some of the fathers of science fiction. 
Never understood why the writers have to mess with the original codex, but I guess they want to pu their own stamp on it, or they think it needs modernized or Americanized (adding Tom Sawyer to League of Extraordinary Gentlemen because they felt American audiences would not identify with English Literary characters, because they haven't read them).  Always irritates me to see 20000 leagues under the sea, or mysterious island with the love interest added.   I have high hopes,.

[Drayton Calhoun]

Always liked the John Carter series. I read all but the last two, I think.