SCI FI PI

The marketing juggernaut for Disney’s tentpole John Carter is shifting up a gear ahead of its (Australian) March 8 release, so in aid of this, a new promo video has been released.

Titled 'John Carter Legacy', the promo features new (and admittedly eye-dazzlingly cool) footage as well as various members of the cast and creative team talking about the new film. It also reveals (as its title suggests) the marketing team’s genius idea for a point of difference. Which is?

We were here first. They copied us.

Yes, the point they really REALLY want to get across, just in case the entire world didn’t already know, is that John Carter is based on the Barsoom series of novels written by pulp novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs (best known for writing Tarzan) early last century.

John Carter the film marks the centenary of John Carter the character’s first appearance in serialized form in Burrough’s Under the Moons of Mars (and later published as the novel A Princess of Mars, in 1917).



And the big reveal: there's TWO Great White Apes!


So in the promo video, the cast and filmmakers are at pains to say things like the following:

Director Andrew Stanton: “It’s been pulled from by many other projects, from books to comic books to movies.”

Actor Willem Dafoe: “John Carter had to be there in order for… STAR WARS TO HAPPEN… OR AVATAR TO HAPPEN!”

Second Unit Director and Screenwriter Mark Andrews: “Anything from a flying city to an airship, is all from John Carter!”



"Aw, man, Lucas, like, so TOTALLY ripped off the airship, man, there's no WAY that dude could have thought of something as way-out as an airship himself. No way!"


Mmmmm. Maybe they have a point. But, I don’t know, does it seem a little mean, or lacking in self-confidence, to be running around trying to tell everyone that Star Wars only exists because of your movie? Actually it’s not even your movie, it’s the hundred year old book your movie is based on. I mean, it’d be fine for Edgar Rice Burroughs to reanimate, shove his skeletal finger in George Lucas’ chest and say, “hey, bud, ya copied me, and you, too, Cameron, ya hack.”

But pointing at two of the great sci fi films and saying “we were here first”, that's a bit of an Orwellian move.

I really, really hope that this is just some marketing guru’s vaguely misguided plan to boost the film, rather than a preemptive defence of something that’s ultimately derivative of other films (whatever its source material).

Let’s hope it’s not the case.


Star Taylor Kitsch with director Andrew Stanton: "No, Taylor, we're not copying Avatar, we're trying to copy Avatar's SUCCESS. Do you see the difference? Okay, let me try again, I'll speak slower this time."


Other things the actors wanted us to know, which again don’t do a lot for confidence in the film, is that it plays out on a really, really grand scale, but actually it’s all about the characters.

And John Carter’s “special ability”, just like a grasshopper, or a flea, is that he can jump really, really far (super abilities have evolved a lot since 1912).

And (the one that really sent shivers down the spine) star Taylor Kitsch tells us “we keep saying the Great White Ape scene is worth the price of admission alone.”

Hmmmmm. You know how Phantom Menace defenders always say “yeah, but what about the POD RACE?! It was worth the price of admission alone!”

PRAY we don’t have another Phantom Menace on our hands.

So here it is. Treat it like a hot, dumb person: don’t listen to what they’re saying, just gaze at the beauty. And hope. HOPE. All of you HOPE that John Carter turns out great!