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Andrew Stanton’s John Carter of Mars PR debacle

Disney, Pixar, and whomever else is involved with the upcoming “John Carter of Mars” movie TRILOGY seems determined to keep a lid on any advance publicity about the project and I cannot for the life of me imagine why. Is this some ridiculous marketing strategy intended to keep the fans on the edge of their seats? Did some suit in the Disney organization run the numbers and decide that — despite the fact that millions of fan boys grew up reading the Edgar Rice Burroughs novels across several generations — there is little to no interest in what is happening with the movies?

I have been checking and looking for John Carter of Mars news. About the only new thing to report is that JohnCarterMovie.com is now redirecting to jcofmars.com. What’s up with that, Mike?

There are basically three dedicated John Carter of Mars movie fan news sites that I know of:

ON UPDATE: Here are several more ERB/JCOM-related sites

If anyone else is out there running a John Carter of Movie news site, please contact me so we can share your URL here and in our John Carter of Mars Movies Forum.

Barsoomia says that the official release date for “John Carter of Mars” is now June 8, 2012. I’m too tired to see if I have come across that date before.

The movie’s premier may be 20 months away but that’s no excuse for doing/saying nothing. “The Hobbit” movie has been the talk of the tabloids for months. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1” has consumed the news media all year long and it’s promoting “The Woman in Black” rather successfully (because Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is starring in that movie, too).

Andrew Stanton, come out to talk with us. There are fan sites and expensive commercial sites that would love to interview you. Sit down with the actors and let them give the press a chance to probe their minds while their roles are still fresh in their memories. What kind of press tour do you think you’ll put together in two years after these wonderful actors have all been involved in other projects?

Release some teaser footage.

Get some book contracts going.

Disney, where are the action figures, the lunch boxes, the signs that you intend to milk this 100-year-old franchise for all its worth? Don’t you have stockholders who want to know what their return on investment will be?

Hey — is there anyone actually WORKING on “John Carter of Mars” or was this all a big joke? I’m not laughing.

“John Carter of Mars” should be one of the most highly anticipated movie franchises of all time. The Edgar Rice Burroughs books inspired generations of imitations in both film and print. Where do you think Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon got some of their ideas? And don’t forget Star Wars.

I’ve seen more advanced publicity for “Cars 2”. What does that say about the priority being given to “John Carter of Mars”? And we’re supposed to believe this project will deliver a trilogy of movies? What are you going to do if the first movie flops because no one knew it was coming?

Anyone at Disney or Pixar get my drift?

10 thoughts on “Andrew Stanton’s John Carter of Mars PR debacle”

  1. Pingback: Tweets that mention Andrew Stanton's John Carter of Mars PR debacle | SF Fandom Blogs -- Topsy.com

  2. Hey, nothing mysterious going on with my http://www.johncartermovie.com (you actually have it in your article incorrectly as http://www.johncarterofmars.com) redirecting to http://www.jcofmars.com, it’s an ongoing server glitch I need to fix. I still own both domains and sometimes the method I use to mirror them on my server goes a bit wonky. It’s fixed for now 🙂 and I have heard that Disney PR does indeed have BIG plans for the movie. We just need to be patient 😉

    1. Sorry about the mixup on the domain name. 😮

      I’m just a little skeptical of their “big” PR plans. They’re not doing a very good job of reaching out to the fan base. There should at least be a couple of social media sites by now. In my humble Web marketer’s opinion ….

  4. First up thank you for including my site on your listing. I have to agree with you that Disney is doing a poor job promoting this film. They could have went to Comic-Con and at least shown concept artwork or photos of some of the actors in costume. They’ve had no problem going for 3 years in a row to promote Tron Legacy. Even Marvel had the entire cast of the Avengers at the last one and it doesn’t even come out until the same time as John Carter so what’s the deal?

  5. I think because the first five books are in public domain that Disney is holding off revealing anything for as long as possible in order to minimize the flood of knock-off products that will inevitably come out.

    1. I’m sure that’s part of it but I’m just getting so frustrated with being a supportive fan of a movie TRILOGY that is acting like it’s MIA. Peter Jackson went through all this with “The Lord of the Rings” 10 years ago.

  7. I think you’re just seeing attention given to Cars 2 first because it’s next on the docket. We are only just starting to see the Cars 2 stuff coming out, and it’s release is only about 7 months away. It is a little strange though that Disney has been giving us the Tron Legacy stuff for years now. Maybe they are worried because it’s Pixar’s first live action? As I recall, Disney didn’t have much faith in Toy Story either. But I trust Andrew Stanton implicitly.

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