Jon Favreau to direct JOHN CARTER OF MARS

The revolving door of directors for JOHN CARTER OF MARS continues to spin. First, I got all excited about Robert Rodriguez, but he left the project due to difficulties with the Director’s Guild. Next up was SKY CAPTAIN director Kerry Conran which seemed like a decent choice although I wasn’t a big SKY CAPTAIN fan. Now the revolving door has spun once more and Jon Favreau (ELF, ZARATHUSTRA) has landed in the director’s chair. 

Producer Harry Knowles had this to say at Aint It Cool:

On ConranI love Kerry, we all did. Ultimately though, Kerry found a couple of pulp properties that he was even more passionate about. Whenever he’s ready to announce, I think everyone everywhere will be happy. You see… We’re still going to deliver a Great JOHN CARTER movie, but Kerry will deliver another great science fiction pulp character film too. We film lovers will have twice as much to be excited about!

On FavreauJon’s first order of business is to bring on a screenwriter to bring the script back closer to Burroughs. He loves that novel. At this stage Jon is securing the effects and design team that we’ve had through Kerry’s tenure on the project and just continue to chip away at the awesome mountain of pre-production that will make this film amongst the finest science fiction-fantasy films of all time.

One of the cool things Favreau will bring to the project is his dislike of CGI. Many of the effects in ZARATHUSTRA are actually miniatures and he has often remarked about his dislike of CGI and his preference for old-school special effects. This could bring a very cool element to JOHN CARTER, especially when contrasted to the sterile green-screen based shooting styles of Rodriguez and Conran.