It has taken the combined power of Pixar bod Andrew Stanton and the Disney finances to finally drag John Carter Of Mars from the page to the screen. And as the film kicks off shooting, the company has announced two new cast members and a host of new crew additions, including Spy Kids' Daryl Sabara and There Will Be Blood's Ciaran Hinds.
Stanton and his team - which according to Disney's press release, includes Batman Begins/**Dark Knight'**s production designer Nathan Crowley and Star Trek cinematographer Daniel Mindel - started work on the film on Friday in London.
Sabara will be playing Edgar Rice Burroughs - inserted by the John Carter author himself into the story as Carter's teenaged nephew, to whom the hero relates his tale. It's not yet known who Hinds will portray.
“I have been waiting my whole life to see the characters and worlds of John Carter Of Mars realized on the big screen,” says Stanton in the statement. “It is just a wonderful bonus that I have anything to do with it.”
With an eclectic gathering of acting types that includes Taylor Kitsch, Lyn Collins, Willem Dafoe, Mark Strong, James Purefoy, Dominic West and Thomas Hayden Church, Mars transports the titular Civil War hero to the equally titular planet as it is torn apart by its own conflict.
There, Carter (Kitsch) falls for a beautiful princess (Collins) and must battle strange new foes. We'll get to see the result of the CG/live-action blend some time next year. If we're lucky.