Monday, August 29, 2011

D23 : John Carter Footage Breakdown

We took a moment to survive a category 1 hurricane but now we are BACK into our D23 roundup with Steve Sievers of level27media.com giving us a rundown of all the wonders Disney had on display. Plenty to ooo and ahh at still to come! For now, we jump back into the Disney Films presentation for a little John Carter action...

Sean Bailey, President of Productions of Walt Disney came out to talk about John Carter. This 3D movie is based on the 1911 novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs who is most famous as the author of Tarzan. Sean introduces Producer Jim Morris and director Andrew Stanton to the stage. Andrew talks about how he read the books and 1970's Marvel comic book series as a kid and has been picturing this movie in his head since then. The movie follows John Carter, a Civil War veteran from Virginia who goes through a cave and is transported to Mars. There he finds himself amid the chaos of war and learns that with less gravity he is now stronger and can jump higher than the natives. The stars of the films hit the stage including Taylor Kitsch who plays John Carter (from TV’s Friday Night Lights & Gambit in the Wolverine movie. I personally think it is about time he got a lead in an action movie!) Lynn Collins comes out next. She plays Dejah Thoris who guides John Carter on his adventure on Mars. Willem Dafoe is last on stage, playing Tars Tarkas, the alien from Mars. Willem's character is CG in the film but he wore a grey motion capture suit on set and had to walk around on stilts in the desert. Willem talked about how he had to train for weeks before shooting to figure out not only how to walk on the stilts but act on them as well. Lucky he didn't have any falls out on the rugged terrain. Taylor Kitsch was proud to say he did most of his own stunts!

Next up: Eye Candy! First, they showed the trailer ..



Then they showed a bunch of clips from the film. Here’s the skinny:

1: John Carter first wakes up on Mars. He comes across a nest of alien eggs hatching with these cute babies crawling around. An alien group is riding these alien looking horses (you get the picture..it’s an alien jamboree) across the plains. One of them throws a spear at John. John jumps out of the way and quickly learns that he can jump way higher than he normally could. One of the aliens gets off his horse and pleads to his fellow aliens to not hurt John. It is Tars Tarkas, who tries to communicate with John (the aliens don't speak English.) Tars drops his gun and the spears he has on his back. He tries to get John to jump again because no one has ever seen that before. John does it, but jumps over Tars to the weapons he has left at the bottom of the hill. One of the other aliens, still on his ride, starts to fire his gun at John but Tars shields him from the bullet. END OF CLIP

2: John Carter wakes up in a jail cell with his hands chained to the wall. The camera pans down and we see that the cute, newly hatched aliens from the first clip are on the ground around him sleeping with many of them curled up in his lap with legs like little puppy dogs. Many women in the audience can be heard saying Awww how cute. (GOLD!) John uses his Mars super strength to break free. He starts to explore and meets his new best friend, an alien dog with 12 legs. The dog instantly falls in love with John and all it wants to do is lick his face. John tries to run away but the dog keeps following him. Finally John does his super jump to get away, but every time he does this, the dog appears next to him. During the next jump, we see the dog uses his 12 legs to run as fast as the Flash and is able to climb up the rocky terrain without hesitation. END OF CLIP

3: John Carter has his warrior gear on (what he wears in the trailer) and is in the private chambers of Dejah Thoris (she looks just like a human.. seems human or human-like aliens are a race on Mars.) She is a princess and is being forced to marry someone from a rival (tribe?) on Mars to try and keep the peace. At this point you can tell that she and John have fallen in love. John is trying to talk her out of the marriage. She attempts to give him a blue medallion and have him speak an oath to become leader of (I would assume) her warrior clan. Meanwhile the door is getting knocked on and people are trying to break in. She tells John she has no choice and looks down at his finger at the wedding ring he wears (we assume he is married to someone back on Earth.) She starts to teach him the oath and as he repeats it, the medallion begins to glow. He stops on the last phrase of the oath and she yells at him to "Say it!" Meanwhile the door bursts open and people come rushing in to her chambers ask "are you ok?" Yes, she replies. "Are you alone in here?" She sadly turns her back and a tear comes out "Yes...I am alone." END OF CLIP

4: John and Tars are sentenced to death and are in gladiator arena that looks straight out of a scene from Star Wars : Attack of the Clones when they are on Geonosis. John’s left ankle is handcuffed with a long chain to the wall while Tars is injured on his right side and holds his wound in agony. A gate opens and a huge White Ape with 4 arms emerges. The ape attacks Tars and John but both keep dodging out of its way. John is trying his best to pull the chain out of the wall to free himself. The audience in the arena are cheering loudly and we see someone in a kingly-type press box say "Release the other one." Another gate opens and a second giant white ape with four arms comes out. END OF CLIP


Check out more images from D23 by CLICKING HERE!

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