Lynn Collins will take on her first lead role in a major film production when she begins filming “John Carter of Mars” with Taylor Kitsch, Willem Dafoe, Mark Strong, and a well-rounded cast. Collins won the part of Dejah Thoris, the princess of Mars for whom adventurer John Carter (played by Kitsch) crosses whole worlds and conquers entire nations. Really, Carter loves his princess of Mars that much.
The classic story of a Confederate soldier who finds his death in a lonely Arizona cave and his rebirth on the red ochre moss-covered seabed of one of Mars’ ancient dried out oceans was pulp fiction giant Edgar Rice Burroughs’ first story. Originally published as “Under The Moons of Mars” followed by three sequels in 1912, the book was eventually published in a single volume as A Princess of Mars and by that title launched a series of stories featuring John Carter, Dejah Thoris, their children, and various associates.
The fan base for John Carter of Mars is immense, and somewhat aging. Many of these devoted readers first discovered the stories in their early years in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Younger fans do exist but their enthusiasm has not been curried by publishers, who have favored longer, larger books that feature dragons, sex, and complex plots.
Several of the John Carter stories are now in the public domain, including the first one. And that situation has inspired at least one independent studio to release its own “Princess of Mars” movie in December 2009. Traci Lords, who has appeared in a number of weak and low-budget science fiction movies and television shows (following a more colorful career in a different genre), plays Dejah Thoris in the direct-to-DvD production.
Don’t panic. You still have time to brush up on your John Carter of Mars lore if you want to join the fan community on the Web. By the time the Disney/Pixar movie is released in 2012, there should be a frothing frenzy of fannish events and activity.
