Favreau Gets His Ass to Mars

News of an Ehren Kruger script getting dropped is always good news.

Wow... I would have never put the two together.

I just hope for awesomeness. Gee, do you think Vince Vaughn might have at least a cameo? I wonder...

Sounds like his script for Brother Grimm kinda dragged the movie down.

I absolutely cannot wait for this film. I kind of like the Favreau choice too; out of left field, but then again so was Peter Jackson for LOTR. For the love of Tars Tarkis he'd better do it justice though, or there will be hell to pay!

Ah, but what of this genre project Kerry Conran is onto now? According to Harry Knowles, it's a character from the 20's-30's. Anyone have guesses?

I still say that was Gilliam's fault, not Krueger's. Which isn't to defend Krueger by any means, it was just a terrible pairing of writer and director. And yes, I'm delighted to hear he's off (I didn't even know he was on.)

This is the best directorial choice so far. Robert Rodriguez would have given us Salma or a Salma-alike as Dejah, and put her in as little clothing as possible, which, I remain convinced, will be one of the main factors in the success of this movie. But the FX would have been awful. Conran? It's too soon to say, but one pictures lavish, inert visuals with very stilted action sequences. However, if either of these guys had involved themselves heavily in the writing aspect, it would have spelled doom.

Favreau, however, gives us human characters and can handle coherent stories. And while we'll have to wait and see if Zathura is as good in the FX department as we're hoping, I certainly love the philosophy he's brought to FX in his interviews. Seems like this could be a bit of a renaissance for old-school practical, in-camera and stop-motion FX guys.

Hell yeah--paint him green, stick on a couple of extra arms and tusks--he'll be perfect.

I hope we hear news that Conran is taking over Flash Gordon from Stephen Sommers. Now that would make my balls jiggle.

Actually to be precise, Knowles said there were 3 properties that Conran was developing that he left this for; two of which are popular pulp characters. I doubt it's the Green Hornet, or the supposedly pending redos of The Shadow or The Phantom, which leaves....

- Conan
- Flash Gordon
- Buck Rodgers
- Doc Savage

My guess? Conan and Flash Gordon.


It seems like pulp action/adventure is on the rise for the future, with the above properties plus these.......Jon Favreau's John Carter of Mars, Peter Berg's Bran Mak Morn, and Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones IV. Fine by me, I love these style of films. Here's hoping Rodriguez latches onto one of the above projects as a post-Sin City film.

If SKY CAPTAIN is anything to go by, Kerry Conran's departure won't be missed. We need a director that can establish spontaneity between the melding of SFX and human interaction, something that was sorely lacking in SKY CAPTAIN.

Kerry Conran is probably the worst possible choice for Conan. It would play to all the things he didn't manage to get right with "Sky Captain" and none of the things he can do, or likes to do (no particular call for elbarote CGi backgrounds and vehicles, for instance). I realize I'm judging the guy based on a single movie, and it's possible he'll continue to grow and improve, but right now it's hard not to think of him as Lucas jr.

Doc Savage is the only one of those that really needs a movie.

Wasn't it reported, I think I read it on CHUD, that Rodriguez would be taking on Conan? About what pulp movies are needed, I really need a Flash Gordon movie. Just not with Stephen Sommers at the helm.

I'm not that psyched about John Carter anyway, I read a few of the books, but I didn't fall head over heels.

Now, Rodriguez doing Conan, that I can see. He's got the messiness and the passion Conan needs, and his buddy Frank Miller might have imparted him some of that gritty noir sensibility by osmosis.

For what it's worth, there are a couple of very positive reviews of "Zathura" over at AICN today.

Interesting. Let's hope that Favreau can make John Carter and Dejah Thoris actual characters rather than just words on paper, which I believe was E.R.B.'s major weakness (other than telling the exact same story a thousand times).

In recent interviews, Rodriguez not only talks about A Princess of Mars in a past tense, but Conan as well. It has never been said why he's no longer on the project, but I would assume it's the same situation he was in with APOM. He quit the DGA to co-direct Sin City with Frank Miller, thus limiting himself on studios he can work with and projects he can take on. Although all that he is really talking about now are the Sin City sequels and Grindhouse, it sounds like he is really only interested in doing his own projects at this point in time as opposed to latching onto those that are already in development.

AICN interview with Johnny Favs.

I love how delicate he is talking about Battlefield Earth. "Guys in big shoes...I don't think you totally bought it." No, no you didn't.

You can never say for sure, but I really think this is the right guy for the project. He's got a good attitude to FX, a good attitude to story and exposition, respects the material, wants to keep Carter a Civil War soldier, wants to make it look like the Frazetta paintings...

I didn't see Zathura being that I'm in my 20's and have no kids, but I did read his interview. I knew the Matrix was ruined when I saw the trailer to reloaded and the burley brawl. I called it months in advance but most people didn't think it would hurt the film. Well we all know what overkill CGI does for movie. Takes you out of them.

Favreau is my champion director in Hollywood.

Zathura hasn't been released yet.

Shit, did I just break Rule Number One by posting news in this thread? Fuck. Apologies. I didn't think it counted.

That gives me warm fuzzies: that he wants to make it look like a Frazetta painting. Frazetta paintings were the ones that not only were the right visual accompaniment to the novels; they set the visual tone of the stories.

So it would make total sense to use Frazetta paintings as a guideline for the big screen adaptation. If Milius could do it and do it well for the first Conan, then why not for this?

I'm now seriously looking forward to this. Wasn't so sure about Rodriguez, but it sounds right on track with Fav.

You know, honestly, Milius's Conan never struck me as looking *that* much like Frazetta. You can see the influence, but it doesn't feel like a "Frazetta movie". The time is ripe for someone to make a movie that really captures that look, cinematographically, costume-wise, the whole schmear.

Anyone seen "Fire & Ice"? Is it any good at capturing Frazetta's look? Is it any good, period?

Damn does that guy sound really grounded and on the ball in that interview, and pretty much every other interview I've read with him. This is just spectacular. He keeps mentioning "story" and "character" over and over again. He seems extremely focused. I'm even more jazzed.

Milnius really got Conan wrong. When you read those original Howard stories, Conan was quite the talker, and had a fiery spirit. Ahnuld could not get that across, and was really a bad choice for the role. Conan's world was so full of life and color, but the movie was as dry as a desert, everything was beige and brown and lifeless.

I think Frazetta may have contributed to that false imagery in some ways. No doubt he was talented and I love a lot of those paintings, but he always put his heroes on top of a barren hill, or in the middle of a snowstorm, or in a deep dark cavern. Very little greenery or lushness. But when you read what Howard and Burroughs wrote, there is so much more color with plants, forests, architecture, clothing, jewelry, etc. It would appear that Milnius allowed those paintings to skew his view of Conan's world somehow.

What you're describing doesn't sound much like Frazetta to me. His paintings were very lush, and featured plenty of jungle and architecture. That's exactly what I thought Milius failed to capture.

Frazetta did do some paintings like that, definitely, but none of those, from what I've seen, had Conan as the subject. There are several paintings where there is a woman alone or with some creature, either at the base of a huge tree or up in a branch, and the scenery is quite lush, but when it comes to Conan, or barbarism in general, I haven't seen him in those environments by Frazetta.

Frazetta had barbarians in lush scenery, it's just that everyone remembers the iconic lone barbarian against hordes, a babe hanging onto him, going berserk, or various combinations of these. And, yeah, there has yet to be a movie that successfully capture Frazetta's art; parts of 13th Warrior, Beastmaster, Conan, and Greystoke had it but never sustained it.

"Fire and Ice" tries very hard to channel Frazetta but it had a hard time up against the bad storytelling and plot. They did capture the slinky babes, thou. Man, can those babes move....

Heh. I have a old VHS version and the new DVD of "Fire & Ice". The beauty is the whole thing is one big Frazetta drawing. While the story (and voice acting) is something to be desired, the art at least is good. But it's still that Bakshi Rotoscoping that I'm not a big fan of.

I agree with you about Conan. There's a few scenes that have a taste of Frazetta in them, but how you going to capture the exagerated full figure beauty of a Frazetta Woman in live-action (which was done in "Fire & Ice", btw)?

However, with today's technology, you can duplicate the "look" of a Frazetta painting in live action. And that I'm hoping to see in this movie.

Funny, I think some of the "Conan savagery" came out more in a Frazetta black & white drawing than the full color painting; although that one of Conan standing on top a hill covered with skulls, snakes, various fallen weaponry and that one babe draping off of his ankle is pretty much my idea of a perfect "Conan portrait".

Frazetta's black and white drawings of "John Carter" stories are pretty much right on the mark, too.

Michael Whelan's Mars art for the covers to the Del Rey paperbacks of the 1980s are just as good as Frazetta's work. They're just as primal and otherworldly, but with more brightness and color.

The crazy thing is Frazetta became a much better sketcher/inker the older he got. He's able to convey lush scenario without the used of color and his figures got much, much better.

I like Michael Whelan like any other geek but lets be frank here; he can't hold Frazetta's jockstrap.