Corona | Coming Attractions

Even though the filmmakers behind John Carter began shooting their motion capture science fiction film more than a year ago, no images showing how WALL*E director Andrew Stanton was adapting Edgar Rice Burroughs' classic novel had leaked, intentionally or otherwise.

Thankfully, the wait is over as of today.

John Carter (formerly titled John Carter of Mars) is a pastiche of Burroughs first novel and several others. Taylor Kitsch, star of TV's Friday Night Lights and he who played Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, plays the hero; a Civil War soldier who finds himself mysteriously whisked away to the red planet. Once on Mars, Carter finds a world more like the one that Robert E. Howard's Conan lived in. Mars is a world where John Carter can breathe the air, and that has many different alien species, all fighting for dominance over their world. There are green four-armed men, giant slavering beasts, beautiful princesses, flying ships and clashing armies -- and Carter finds himself thrust into the middle of the action.

Disney released this teaser poster via Apple today, and it inspires some confidence that the heavy CG that John Carter needs to successfully realize a populated Mars won't venture into the so-called uncanny valley. In short, Kitsch looks like he's Kitsch and not some painted Tom Hanks/Polar Express cartoon version.

After being bumped from its original summer berth, John Carter opens in theaters March 9, 2012.