John Carter (2012)
John Carter is a 2012 American science fiction action-adventure film directed by Andrew Stanton. It chronicles the first interplanetary adventure of John Carter and his attempts to mediate civil conflict amongst the warring kingdoms of Barsoom. Filming began in November 2009, with principal photography underway in January 2010, wrapping seven months later in July. Michael Giacchino, who scored many Pixar films, composed the music. Like Pixar’s Brave that same year, the film is dedicated to the memory of Steve Jobs, who was CEO and majority shareholder of Pixar prior to Disney’s acquisition in 2006.
Plot:
In 1881, Edgar Rice Burroughs arrives at the estate of his recently deceased uncle, John Carter, a former American Civil War Confederate Army captain who died suddenly. Per Carter’s instructions, the body is put in a tomb that can be unlocked only from the inside. His attorney gives Carter’s personal journal to Burroughs to whom Carter bequeathed his fortune. In a flashback to 1868 in the Arizona Territory, Union Colonel Powell arrests Carter with hopes that Carter will help in fighting local Apache. Carter escapes his holding cell, but fails to get far with U.S. cavalry soldiers in close pursuit.
After a run-in with a band of Apaches, Carter and a wounded Powell are chased until they hide in a cave that turns out to be filled with gold. A Thern appears in the cave at that moment and, surprised by the two men, attacks them with a knife; Carter kills him but accidentally activates the Thern’s powerful medallion and is unwittingly transported to a ruined and dying planet, Barsoom, known to Carter as Mars. Because of his different bone density and the planet’s low gravity, Carter is able to jump high and perform feats of incredible strength. He is captured by the Tharks, a nomadic tribe of Green Martians and their Jeddak, Tars Tarkas.
Filming:
Principal photography began at Longcross Studios, England, in January 2010 and ended in Kanab, Utah, in July. Other locations in Utah included Lake Powell and Grand, Wayne, and Kane counties. Cinematographer Dan Mindel believed that the entire movie should have been shot in the Four Corners region of the southwestern U.S., the only place on Earth he felt could convincingly pass for Mars. “A lot of the studio work that we had done was so compromised because of the choice of studio, the size of the stages, the fact that it was all inside when it should have been outside, all that kind of stuff”