Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston has joined the cast of director Andrew Stanton’s new movie John Carter of Mars.
The movie is based on the book A Princess of Mars, which was first published in 1917, an will follow Civil War vet John Carter, who is transported to Mars, where the locals, 12-foot tall green creatures, imprison him. After escaping he finds himself caught in the middle of another conflict between the warring locals.
Cranston will play a Civil War colonel who comes into conflict with Carter, played by Wolverine star Tyler Kitsch. Also in the cast are Lynn Collins, Willem Dafoe, Samantha Morton, Dominic West, Polly Walker, Thomas Haden Church, Mark Strong, and James Purefoy.
The movie is directed by Adam Stanton, who wrote the screenplay with Mark Andrews, and will be Pixar’s first live action movie. The CGI elements of the film are likely to be farmed out as Pixar is not keen to become a special effects studio.
At this moment it would appear that Disney really want to use the good name of Pixar to enhance their line-up. If the attention to detail in the story is upholds the Pixar tradition of quality then we should have no problems, but that’s a big if.
The film is expected to be the first of a possible trilogy, and will begin shooting next week for a 2012 release.