Willem Dafoe in Disney’s John Carter of Mars

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I’m very excited about the John Carter of Mars. First, I’m a fan and collector of the old pulps, so when it was reported that one of my favorite writers (Michael Chabon) was contributing on the film it immediately became BSC business to follow. We now can add Willem Dafoe to the previous casting news.

We’ve seen statements that this project may be a Pirates-like project for Disney and the Dafoe cast follows the announcements from last month that Taylor Kitsch Lynn Collins (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, True Blood). If you remember, we also posted the video interview where Thomas Hayden Church revealed he’d be in the film as well, but still no official confirmation.

Dafo takes on the role of Tars Tarkas, a fierce green Martian warrior, who’s unusual among his savage race for his ability to love.

As a related aside, you can read an excerpt of Chabon short fiction (published in McSweeneys) called The Martian Agent: A Planetary Romance. The film is being directed by Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo and WALL-E) and will be an adaptation of A Princess of Mars (1917), the first of the Burroughs Barsoom novels.