Tom Cruise has a career packed with plenty of science fiction films. Edge of Tomorrow survived a turbulent production and became a surprise success. Oblivion may not have been as successful, but it led to Cruise working with Joseph Kosinski, and the two eventually reunited for Top Gun: Maverick. One could even argue that the technology used by Cruise’s Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible franchise borders on the edge of science fiction. But there’s one science fiction movie that Cruise never managed to become a part of, despite his desire to play the lead role, and that’s John Carter.
Based on the John Carter of Mars novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the John Carter movie was shaping up to be truly epic. Andrew Stanton, the mastermind behind Pixar hits Finding Nemo and WALL-E, was making his live-action debut with the film. Michael Chabon, an accomplished novelist who helped contribute to the Spider-Man 2 screenplay, co-wrote the script. The cast was talented, including Bryan Cranston, Willem Dafoe, and Mark Strong among them. However, John Carter ran into a number of roadblocks that led to it being one of the biggest box office bombs in history — yet it’s far from a horrible movie.
Taylor Kitsch Beat Tom Cruise for the Lead Role in ‘John Carter’

Image via Paramount Pictures

In an oral history conducted by TheWrap, Stanton admitted that casting John Carter himself was a tough process, especially since the list of potential candidates was apparently a very long one. Taylor Kitsch would land the role, but Tom Cruise was determined to get it first. Stanton had his mind set on casting Kitsch, though:

“I had Taylor already in mind by the time Tom made his interest known. Tom had a long history with the material, so it wasn’t too surprising to discover he still had interest in it. He was a consummate professional in his discussions with me about the role, and beyond respectful to the fact I was already on an audition path with Taylor,” he said.

This wasn’t the first time Cruise had been attached to a John Carter film. Back in 1990, Disney was flirting with the idea of adapting the material with Cruise as Carter and Julia Roberts as the Princess of Mars, Deja Thoris. The team behind the scenes was just as impressive: John McTiernan was approached to direct following the success of Predator and Die Hard, with Back to the Future screenwriter Bob Gale tapped to flesh out the script. Things stalled out when McTiernan decided to direct Last Action Hero (which ironically turned out to be another box office bomb), but it’s not surprising that Cruise wanted to join Stanton’s version.
‘John Carter’ Is a Good Movie That Was Let Down by Its Marketing

Looking back at John Carter, it’s a film that was ahead of its time. Most of the political intrigue and worldbuilding rivals anything displayed in Dune or Game of Thrones, and Stanton’s work with Pixar makes many of the computer-generated characters — including Dafoe’s Tars Tarkas, leader of the Green Martians — feel like actual flesh and blood. Stanton and Chabon also manage to distill the essence of A Princess of Mars into an action-packed adventure that also has a fair amount of humor and heart. So what exactly led to its box office misfortunes?

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The answer lies in the marketing campaign which saw Stanton making a number of baffling choices. He chose not to advertise his work with Pixar in the trailers, when that could have drawn newcomers to the theater. Instead of going with A Princess of Mars as the title, the choice was made to simply call the film John Carter, without considering that some audience members might not know about the books. The cherry on top was the fact that Disney’s marketing team at the time was led by someone who had no experience in movies, and therefore didn’t really know how to sell the film. “This is one of the worst marketing campaigns in the history of movies,” a Disney exec told Vulture. “It’s almost as if they went out of their way to not make us care.”
The Failure of ‘John Carter’ Marked a Turning Point for Disney

John Carter might have been yet another example of Disney fumbling a potential sci-fi franchise, but it would also mark a turning point for Disney. A few months after John Carter’s failure, The Avengers would take the box office by storm and Disney would also acquire Lucasfilm. With the Marvel Cinematic Universe proving to be a moneymaker and the Star Wars franchise under its belt, Disney would slowly rely on those two properties for sci-fi stories.
John Carter is a simple case of execution failing to meet intent. While Andrew Stanton intended to deliver a cosmic epic that matched Edgar Rice Burroughs’ books, he didn’t take marketing into account. But the film’s reappraisal in later years proves that it had the glimmers of something special — and it didn’t need Tom Cruise to pull it off.
John Carter is available to watch on Disney+ in the U.S.
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John Carter

Release Date

March 9, 2012

Director

Andrew Stanton

Runtime

132 minutes

Budget

$250 million

Studio(s)

Disney

Distributor(s)

Disney

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