It’s safe to say that Disney’s sci-fi epic, John Carter, has been a box office disappointment thus far. But given that the movie has been out less than a week and that a rabid fan base is lending its support, there may yet be hope for the survival of the franchise. Recently we were contacted by the folks who cut this awesome fan-made trailer and run this John Carter fan site to let us know about the rapidly-expanding fan base behind the film. Started by fans, the Facebook group “Take Me Back to Barsoom! I want a sequel!” is recruiting followers in an attempt to make enough noise to encourage Disney to greenlight a sequel.

While I personally wouldn’t mind a return voyage to Mars, the thing that’s going to make the biggest splash and get the studio’s attention is plain and simple dollar bills. Social media goes a long way these days to resurrect things like NBC’s Community, but the roughly $250 million budget on the first John Carter is going to demand more than a Facebook page. I encourage fans of the source material to check out both of the above sites and by all means go see the film a second (or more) time to lend your support. In the mean time, you can get caught up on all of our previous coverage of John Carter here. Hit the jump to check out another awesome fan-made trailer (and if Disney is listening, please consider hiring these guys for your marketing team next time around…seriously). 

Disney’s visually spectacular interplanetary epic John Carter opened in theaters this weekend with Taylor Kitsch playing the titular hero who finds himself lost in a strange land, Lynn Collins portraying a Martian princess and Willem Dafoe as a towering alien warlord. Regardless of how well John Carter performs at the box office, none of it would have been possible without author Edgar Rice Burroughs’ long-running series featuring the exploits of an Earthling on Barsoom. It’s taken almost 100 years to translate Burroughs’ vision to the big screen, but I predict that the novel will enjoy a much longer lifespan than the film. We’ve brought you trailers, images, clips, posters and interviews, but none of it would exist without the original book, “A Princess of Mars,” which the Library of Congress has made available to read for free online. Definitely go check out the film while it’s still in theaters, but do yourself a favor and read up on this classic series as well. Hit the jump to see a PSA from the ad council reminding us that books still exist.

After its enormous opening last weekend, The Lorax continued to impress – capturing its second number one title with an estimated $39.1 million, or a week-over-week decline of just 44%.  For once, however, people seem more interested in the film that didn’t make it to number one than with the film that did.

I’ll use this week’s opening paragraph to offer a bit of foreshadowing. There’s a great chance that I’m going to be talking about 21 Jump Street here next week. Now, I’ll admit, I’ve never been one to laud the work of Channing Tatum. For the first time ever, though, I’m going into a film with high expectations for his performance. I think that everything I’ve seen of the film thus far looks terrific and Matt’s review and this NSFW extended trailer are just icing on the cake at this point.

On tap in this week’s “Top 5″ is a plethora of John Carter coverage including interviews with Taylor Kitsch, Andrew Stanton and more, a video blog recap of Topher Grace‘s Star Wars prequels edit, new images and a new trailer for The Cabin in the Woods, Silent House interviews with Elizabeth Olsen and co-directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, and the first image of Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer in The Lone Ranger. Per usual, a brief recap and link to each await after the jump.

The wait is over. John Carter has arrived.  After years of speculation, we finally know how Disney’s BIG budget adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic is faring with audiences.  Long story short?  Not too well.  From 3,749 locations, John Carter earned an estimated $9.8 million on Friday – narrowly edging out The Lorax for first place. Trouble is, last weekend’s animated hit is expected to surge ahead on Saturday, all but guaranteeing John Carter an underwhelming second-place debut of around $28 million. That would be less than the $35.5 million of last year’s Battle: Los Angeles, a film that was considered a modest hit thanks to its $70 million price tag.  As you probably know, John Carter cost over three times that amount; which means it has a LONG way to go before it can escape the “flop” fate. Just in case anyone cares, two additional films saw releases this weekend, though only Open Road’s Silent House did well enough to make Friday’s top five.  In sixth place, Paramount’s A Thousand Words earned an estimated $1.9 million from 2,124 venues for what should be a weekend total in the $6 million range.  Details and analysis tomorrow.

As I said in the intro to my interview with John Carter producer Jim Morris, while it’s always great to talk with actors, if you want to hear why certain key decisions were made, you’ve got to talk with the filmmakers.  After all, while an actor might have a great behind the scenes story (like my interview with Taylor Kitsch), the producer can tell you what deleted scenes will be on the eventual Blu-ray, and what the filmmakers learned from showing the film to the Pixar brain trust.   But without a doubt, the best part of talking with a producer is the stuff that comes up that you weren’t expecting.  Like hearing about an R-rated cut of Galaxy Quest!   If anyone at the studio is reading this, fans would love to see this cut.  Think about a special edition home video release.  Please!

Anyway, the other week, Disney held a big press junket in Arizona, and I landed an exclusive video interview with John Carter producer Lindsey Collins.  During our extended conversation we talked about how the movie doesn’t talk down to the audience, how they showed the film to the Pixar brain trust and what they learned, deleted scenes, her favorite movie, actor and director, and like I already said, she talked about how Sigourney Weaver told her about the original version of Galaxy Quest.  Hit the jump to watch.

It’s always great when you meet someone for the first time and they’re extremely nice, grounded, and willing to literally talk about anything.   Trust me, this is not the norm in Hollywood.  But when I walked in to speak with Taylor Kitsch for his great work in Andrew Stanton‘s John Carter, not only was Kitsch kind enough to let me use my flip camera for the interview, he was very willing to play along with my questions.

While I of course asked him about making John Carter and the challenges of working with the green screen, we also talked about his favorite movie, actors and director, how 2012 is a big year for him (he’s also in Battleship), how he based Tim Riggins on a Gary Oldman performance, his feelings on the way Friday Night Lights ended and whether or not he would come back for a movie.  In addition, he told me a great story about playing the “Male Camper” on Kyle XY and the audition that went with it, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch.

There’s a special place in my heart for big, bold adventure movies like John Carter.  In an age where detached irony seems to permeate every recess of our lives, John Carter throws out names like “Zodongan”, “Therns”, “Tharks”, and “Barsoom” and doesn’t blink an eye.  This is the world of John Carter and co-writer/director Andrew Stanton mostly lets the world open up at its own pace.  The conflicts are laid out cleanly, the lead characters are compelling, and eventually you’re not wondering about the difference between Zodongans and Heliumites and how a guy from 19th-century Earth was drawn into their conflict.  You’re too enraptured by the majesty of the red planet.  You’re also too busy laughing at the good-natured humor and being sucked into the exhilarating action.

While it’s always great to talk with actors, if you want to hear why certain key decisions were made, or what was the most difficult technical sequence, you’ve got to talk with the producer.  After all, while an actor might have a great behind the scenes story, the producer can give you a lot more details.

The other week, Disney held a big press junket in Arizona, and I landed an exclusive video interview with John Carter producer Jim Morris.  During our extended conversation we talked about how the movie doesn’t talk down to the audience, how they improved the shortcomings of the novel, his thoughts on film vs. digital, are there Easter Eggs in the film, the issues with 3D brightness in different theaters, the pranks on set, what’s his favorite movie, actor and director, and so much more.  Hit the jump to watch.

The other night, Collider co-hosted a free IMAX 3D screening of John Carter at the Universal Citywalk in Hollywood.  While I’ve been going on and on about how much I loved Andrew Stanton‘s movie, I was curious how our readers would respond to the film and if they’d like it as much as I did.  So shortly after the film ended, I used my flip cam to interview a number of people and you can watch what they had to say after the jump.

While Dominic West has been acting for two decades, I’ll admit that he only got on my radar when I started watching HBO’s amazing series, The Wire.  Over the course of the series, West did an amazing job portraying the complicated life of detective James ‘Jimmy’ McNulty.  While the show was never a ratings bonanza for HBO, it will go down as one of the best TV shows ever produced, and it provided a launching pad for its excellent cast to take bigger projects.  For West, that bigger project is John Carter.  In Andrew Stanton‘s film, West plays the leader of an alien race who is obsessed with taking over Barsoom (Mars).

The other week, Disney held a big press junket in Arizona, and I landed an exclusive video interview with West.  During our extended conversation we talked about how he got involved in John Carter, the challenges of the production and working with green screen, his reaction to the finished film, the reshoots, how he might do an upcoming HBO series, and more.  In addition, as a huge fan of The Wire, I made sure to ask about his work on the show and how it opened the door to other things.  Finally, we talked about West’s little-known but crucial part in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.  Hit the jump to watch the interview.

Following yesterday’s release of a ten-minute clip, a new (and much shorter) clip from John Carter has gone online.  After having seen the film last week, I feel the need to convince people that this is a good movie.  I’ll have my full review up on Thursday, but when you watch this clip, don’t roll your eyes and think “Yeah, it’s the speeder chase from Return of the Jedi.  Great job.”  A) Watching on your computer monitor isn’t the best way to view the scope of this action scene; and B) the scene is much more exciting on the big screen.  This is a good flick that has been marketed poorly, so you’ll just have to take my good word on this one.

Hit the jump to check out the clip.  The film stars Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, Polly Walker, Thomas Haden Church, and Willem Dafoe.  John Carter opens in 3D on March 9th.

Ninety-five years ago, Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote A Princess of Mars, and since its publication, the series has influenced generations of readers.  As you might imagine, numerous filmmakers were inspired by Burroughs imagination, and many tried and were unsuccessful in bringing the story to the big screen.  Enter Andrew Stanton.  As the writer-director of Pixar’s Finding Nemo and WALL-E, Stanton has proven himself to be a great director.  He’s also a big fan of A Princess of Mars, and when he made the move to live-action, he got Disney to bring the film to theaters (now under the title of “John Carter“, named after the book’s protagonist).  After you see it this weekend, you’ll be glad you did.  The film is fantastic and well worth the price of an IMAX 3D ticket.  Trust me: once you’re transported to the world of Barsoom, you’re going to love it.

The other week, Disney held a big press junket in Arizona and I landed an exclusive video interview with Stanton.  During our extended conversation we talked about the challenge of bringing Burroughs’ story to mainstream audiences, the long post-production schedule, the editing process, how the movie changed along the way, and deleted scenes.  In addition, we talked about Easter Eggs, his favorite movie, director and actor, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch.

John Carter delivers on the epic sci-fi/fantasy adventure that it’s promising.  But the nicest surprise for me was the humor that writer/director Andrew Stanton (Wall-E) layers throughout.  Disney has posted 10 minutes from the beginning of the movie, before John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) is transported to Mars.  The clip establishes the main character and sets up the rest of the film through the eyes of a fictionalized version of a young Edgar Rice Burroughs (Daryl Sabara).  But I recommend watching it to get a sense of just how funny the movie can be, here exemplified by a neat comic set piece created through editing.

Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, Polly Walker, Thomas Haden Church, and Willem Dafoe also star in John Carter, which opens in IMAX and 3D on March 9th.  Watch the clip after the jump.

If you live in the Los Angeles area and you’ve been looking forward to director Andrew Stanton‘s John Carter, you are about to be very happy!  That’s because this Monday night, Collider is co-hosting a free IMAX 3D screening of the film with Slashfilm and Badass Digest and everyone is invited!  As some of you already know, I saw the film and loved it.  For two hours I felt transported to another time and place, and you’re going to be floored by the film’s size and scope.  Trust me, you definitely want to see this in a movie theater and if you have the option, I’d see it in IMAX 3D.

Which brings us to our free screening of the film.  If you’d like to attend, hit the jump for all the info.