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ld joke:"Whenwasthe GoldenAge ofScience Fic-tion?" An-swer: "Aboutll or 12."

would himself mint gold asdirector and co-writer of the2008 sci-fi animated feature'WALL-E"

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became enam-ored ofthe pulp-fiction adven-turer Iohn Carter of Mars, hero

of the new Disney movie "|ohnCarter," opening Friday.

"It makes complete sense tome that as an ll-year-old nerdykid, I would fall in love withthat story, no matter when itwas written " says Stantorl 46,speaking by phone, of EdgarRice Burroughs' pre-Tarzanseries. "It's about a normal guywho suddenly, just for beinghimself, becomes extraordi-nary when he goes to a newplace

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where he's bestfriends with the coolest guy,he's got the coolest pet andhe's fallen in love with themost beautifi.rl woman in theuniverse. That's a checklist of

everything an ll-year-oldnerdy kid could want."

A similar sort of childhoodimprinting holds for the mov-ie's co-star, Willem Dafoe.Though his often dark andanguished roles

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Sgt. Elias in"Platoon," |esus in "The LastTemptation of Christ"

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mayseem at odds with his being ina Disney film playing a 9-foot-tall, green, four-armed Mar-tian, "It's probably thanks toDisney that I'm an actor," heexplains over lunch at a Green-wich Village restaurant. "Be-cause I remember when I wasa kid, some of my fust imagin-ings came from lseeing] those

early animated movies andsitting on my belly playing thelsoundtrack and spinofflrecords over and over again,doing the voices and actingthings out. I remember that sowell There's a certain kind ofpleasure in coming around toDisney."

He does so inthe motion-cap-ture, CGI role of Tars Tarkas,chieftain of the Martian speciescalled Tharks. Noble but excit-able, Tarkas finds novelty vdueinfohn Carter (Taylor Kitsch), aformer Confederate soldiertransported to the planet thatthe Tharks and two warringhumanoid factions call Bar-

il*'x fuwwrx e *eYeW i**aYm*Y,Wwt mt" *ast %*i-#* WwXWfu*r* **ptm #mr*,wr hitstfue **r&wll' an m &mxhy rnew hlgh-tee$'t thrif**r

soorn There, thanks to "thelesser gravitation and lower airpressure onMars," as Burroughsput it, Carter can leap prodi- 'giously and has ampliliedstrength

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whichhelps him aidTarkas against apretender tothe throne and rally the Tharksto embattled humanoid princessDejah Thoris (Lynn Collins).

"It's a special way of perform-ing," Dafoe allows of motion-capture, the technology thatdevolvedAndy Serkis to star aschimp Caesar in "Rise of thePlanet of the Apes." Aside from.having been ensconced in astilt-like mount to reachTharkheight, he says,'You have this

"Tarzan" creator Edgar Rice Burroughs, shownin 1934, first wrote about Carter 1n1912.

huge battery pack on your baclgyou've got a camera on yourhead,youhave these lights thatsimulate the lTharks'] tusks butalso light your face for the cam-er4 and sometimes you havearm extenders so you can givethe animators the proper dimen-sions. But you know, what'sfunny is your impulses are justas always: Youte trying toaccomplish things in each scene,and these are just uihat you'vegot to do themwith-"

Technology did have to catchup with filmmakers' ambitionsforthe Carter canon- whichbegan with Burrougbs' firstpubliqhed short story, "Underthe Moons of Mars," in theFebruaryl9l2 iszue of the pulpmagazine The All-Story, andcontinued through "SkeletonMen of Jupiter" in AmazingStories, February 1943.

MGM scrapped plans for ananirnated feature in1934, follow-ing test footage by "IooneyTunes" animator Bob Clampett.In the 1950s, Ray Harryhausentried and failed to obtain movierights for aversion inco4rorat-ingstop-motionanimation.A,

mid-1980s Disney attempt bydirector |ohn McTiernan andstar Tom Cruise never material-ized,nor didParamountprojects from2002 to 2006withRobert Rodriguez ("Spy Kids"),Kerry Conran ('Sky Captain andthe World of Tomorrov/') andfon Fawearl who'd go on todirect"IronMan"

"They just kept falling apart "Stanton says ofthose earlierprojects,'bhether over budgetor creative [differences], I dort'tknow. Faweau had gotten reallyfar onit, but things fell apart onthe final budget."

When Carter fan Stantonheard about the rights beingavailable agaig "I proposed it toDisney, and oncewe got it anditwas official" the lirst persontocall me waslon Faweau, whichwas really sweet And he said,'I-oolq I'm really bummed I

NOI'I'ONLINE" See a trailer for

'-John Carter". mday.com/nniss

never get to do it, but I'm happyit's going to you guys if it's goingto anybody and I only have onerequest: Can I be a Thark?'Absolute$" Stanton gaveFaweau a motion-capturecameo as a Thark bookie.

So what odds would thatbookie give'John Cartet''?Audience-tracking numbershave been iffr, according totrade reports, and period-filmpulp heroes have had amixedrecord in movies; for everyZorro and Conan success comesa Shadow or Doc Savage flop.

The critical issue, Stantonbelieves, is overcoming "anassumption that you have tomake it relevant to todap I fellin love with abookthat was 64years old at the time I read it, sothat told me what I lovedwereideas that were timeless andmythic. It would be like saying,'Ott,I like "Moby-Diclq" butwe'd better put a battleship init.' "

Maybe so. But whatever thefilm's fortunes, we'd bet there'san ll-year-old out there who'sgoing to start &eaming ofBarsoorn Or at least Deiah Thoris.

ndrew Stanton first met fohn Carter incomic books: Marvel Comics' 28-issue'Tohn Carter, Warlord ofMars" (Iune

Lyn-Oct 1979). "That was my gateway," he says."I went through the comics so fast I immediatelywanted to linow the source material and wentstraight to the books."

Those began with the 1917 hardcover "A Prin-cess of Mars," whichcollected the originalsix-part "Under theMoons of Mars" thatraninthepulp maga-zineTheAll-Story(February-Iuly 1912).Similarly serializednovels continuedthrough1936("Swords of Mars"),followed by a coupleofreprinted short-story collections.Ballantine Booksbrought outpaper-backs starting inf963.

For children, therewasboth aWhitrnanBiglittleBookanda csimilar Dell FastAction book in 194.0. A United Feature Syndicatecomic strip

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writtenby Edgar Rice Burroughsand illustrated by sonfohn Coleman Burroughs

-ran from Dec .7,1941',to Aprtl3,l943.Long before Marvel, )ohn Carter appeared in

some of the earliest comic books: Dell Publish-ing's "The Funnies" #30-56 (May 1939-]une1941). Dell again in the 1950s, Gold Key Comicsin the 1960s and DC Comics in the 1970s alsopublished fohn Carter stories.Since 2010, Dyna-mite Entertainment has published "Warlord ofMars," and it has an upcoming spinoff starringDejah Thoris. And Marvel just published afive-issue adaptation ofthe original novel.

And who could forget -

scratch that -

whocan remember the 2009 direct-to-DVD "Prin-ces6 of Mars," stariing Antonio Sabato |r. and

Lynn Collinsis embattledprincessDejah Thorisand TaylorKitsch is theEdgar RiceBurroughs'title hero in"JohnCarter,"which opensFriday.

A century ofspace adventures

Marvel comics cover ofthe1977 "John Carter,Warlord of Mars" :ot

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