Paramount announced that ELF and ZATHURA director Jon Favreau has been hired to direct the film adaptation of JOHN CARTER OF MARS, reports the trades. Previously, SKY CAPTAIN helmer Kerry Conran was attached to direct after Robert Rodriguez had to step down from the production after he quit the Directors Guild. Exec producer Harry Knowles said on his website Aint It Cool News that Conran left the film to work on another pulp sci-fi project that he was more passionate about.
Based on the 11-book Edgar Rice Burroughs sci-fi series, the story follows a Civil War veteran whose retreat into a cave to avoid capture by Apache Indians results in his transportation via a time portal to the planet of Barsoom and taken prisoner by 12-foot-tall green men.
Alphaville Prods. partners Sean Daniel and Jim Jacks are producing. Ehren Kruger revamped the original script by Mark Protosevich. Knowles says Favreau is looking for another screenwriter to give the script a go in order to bring the story closer to the book.
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