Given the amount of negativity surrounding Finding Nemo and WALL-E director Andrew Stanton’s first live-action film, John Carter, you would think that many are not only expecting it to fail, but want it to. Stanton recently returned to Twitter and has been very active, taking time out of his surely-insane schedule to answer questions posed to him by followers. He has cleared up a few rumors about the film that have been floating around the web for months. After the jump, read what he had to say about the film’s oft-written about budget problems and more.
Myths:
- John Carter is a Pixar film – Andrew says that it’s “a DISNEY film.” This is one myth that just won’t die. To this day, there are still some reputable newspapers and blogs that refer to Carter as a Pixar film, even though neither Stanton, Disney, or Pixar ever claimed as such. It was beginning to get so out of hand last year, I even wrote a post about the confusion. It is a Disney film, through and through. Stanton may have recruited some Pixar folks to help him out, but that’s about it. There won’t even be any Pixar easter eggs in it.
- John Carter’s production ran over its allotted time and went way overbudget – Andrew says that “he completed [it] on time, on budget.” Over the past two months, “news” about the film costing much, much more than intended has spiraled out of control online. It is interesting to note that whenever the budget is written about, the word ‘reportedly’ always follows the amount around. More rumors than fact, it seems.
- John Carter will need to make $700 million or more at the box office in order to earn a sequel – Andrew says, “Nope.” Lately, this is another “story” that has been making the rounds. Apparently, it all stems from an article in the New Yorker (you know, that magazine that broke an embargo they agreed to when they published an early Girl With The Dragon Tattoo review), which Vulture pointed out, that says “John Carter … will have to earn about $700 million to justify a sequel.” Apparently, that was all hogwash. As Stanton points out in the tweet, we shouldn’t believe everything that’s written is a hard fact.
There’s also some good news for those thinking that Andrew Stanton has left Pixar behind for the live-action film world. Last week he said, “Never left Pixar. Never will.” Today, he added, “Working on a Pixar film today.” Who knows whether the film he is working on is one that has been announced or one that is still hidden behind a curtain at Pixar. Just having him continue to leave his mark on the company is good news enough for me. Now, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t love to see him return to the director’s chair at Pixar, though.
