John Carter was a very public disappointment for Disney, the studio posting an $84 million dollar loss on the Edgar Rice Burrough’s beloved series of sci-fi novels. But there was a time, before the property landed in the House of Mouse, that the project, at the time called John Carter of Mars (a better title, in my opinion, because it let audiences know what they were in for) was in the hands of Paramount and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow director Kerry Conran, and before that project was axed, Conran made a presentation reel of his vision for the movie, complete with concept art and very early effects work. A lo-res version has been doing the rounds for some time, but below you can find a much more clean and crisp version, uploaded by Ain’t It Cool News founder Harry Knowles, who was also set to produce the Conran directed adaption, that gives you a great sense of what could have been.
Sky Capatin and the World of Tomorrow may have its haters, but there’s no denying its gorgeous visuals, and Conran’s clear love for old sic-fi. That shines through in the above video too. Some of the artwork is absolutely gorgeous, and would have looked absolutely spectacular brought to life on the big screen. Even the early fight choreography is pretty darn impressive too. There’s no knowing if this version would have fared better finding an audience than John Carter. The source material is quite out there, and since it has gone on to inspire pretty much every piece of science fiction of the 20th century, it would (and probably did) elicit a lot “I’ve seen this all before”. But no matter what happened, it’s clear Conran would have made a very impressive go of it.
