Is John Carter's PR a Debacle?


That's the question that is being asked on the site Sf-Fandom by writer Michael Martinez http://www.sf-fandom.com/2010/11/10/andrew-stantons-john-carter-of-mars-pr-debacle/ who wonders why there has been no news about John Carter of Mars recently. For the most part I agree with him (and not just because he has graciously listed this blog in his piece), it seems that everyone involved with this movie-Disney, Pixar and Andrew Stanton-have been hiding this film from the public. We've had two San Diego Comic-Cons in a row with nothing shown (even though Disney has been there 3 years in a row promoting Tron: Legacy), no official website (just a Facebook page that has had no updates forever) and the most we get from the actors is standard "the movie will look great" speak, not to mention Disney preventing concept artwork shown at their D23 Expo in 2009 from leaking out or even the photo of one of the extras in costume that leaked out a few months back which was quickly removed from the actress' IMDB page. Why is this film being hidden? I can understand yes it might be premature to show scenes with needed FX (who wants to see Dafoe in his motion capture PJs?) but the fact that we know virtually everything else about every other big movie coming out in 2012-from constant Hobbit news to casting of the Spider-Man reboot to even pics of John Carter star Taylor Kitsch's other big-budget flick Battleship-you begin to wonder when are they going to start promoting this?
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Paul Twinz said…
I cannot speak to what's going on right now, but there was a point where I thought there was too much PR for the film. Also, ERB Inc. and its partners have a long history of screwing up this project. I hope it does well at the box office, but I will not be surprised if it bombs.
November 10, 2010 at 9:34 PM
Mike Smith said…
I agree they need to be pushing this movie more, but what I really wanted to comment about was the image you used in this article. I love it! Where does that image come from and who is the artist? All I can make out in the signature is W. E. something.

I love the start graphic nature of it. It reminds me of the woodcuts of Lynd Ward, one of my all time favorite artists.
November 11, 2010 at 6:05 AM
MCR said…
I'll start by saying I agree with Paul. I do hope the film does well if it is a good movie. I just don't want it to succeed just because Pixar has their name slapped on it or if it is unfaithful to the material, even though comments made by the actors have indicated the film seems to bear little resemblance to the books (shape shifting Matai Shang and a "blitzing" warrior Dejah Thoris pretty much sums that up.) I would also not be surprised if it does bomb though-it's sandwiched between several big movies and Disney has shown a remarkable ability of dumping their films on bad release dates (releasing the second Narnia film between Iron Man and Indiana Jones 4 or Sorcerer's Apprentice opposite Inception).

As for your question Mike, the artist is named William Erik Evans and the piece was comissioned by Pixar. He has a blog where he talks about it here http://bottlerocketproductions.blogspot.com/2009/07/john-carter-of-mars-cover.html Hope that helps!
November 11, 2010 at 6:38 AM
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