Todos los secretos de 'John Carter', la última superproducción de Disney

Although John Carter It contains a good number of visual effects, the filmmakers wanted to use locations and natural landscapes to give the feeling that the places are real, offering the viewer an authenticity that contributes to the credibility and realism of the new Disney film.

From the award -winning filmmaker with a Andrew Stanton Academy award, this John Carter's screens arrives this Friday, a spectacular action adventure set in the mysterious and exotic planet Barsoom (Mars). The film is based on a classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose imaginative adventures served- and serve until today- inspiration for many filmmakers.

The film tells the story of a war veteran, former military captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where, despite his reluctance, he will be immersed in a conflict of epic proportions with the inhabitants of the planet, among which are Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the captivating princess leaves Thoris (Lynn Collins). In a world on the verge of collapse, Carter will rediscover his humanity by warning that Barsoom's survival and his people are in his hands.

This year the centenary of the epic novel of action and adventures written by Edgar Rice Burroughs and entitled is held A princess from Mars (Then it went on to be called Under Mars the moons). Due to his enormous success, Burroughs wrote another ten books that were known as the Barsoom series that was the name he had given to the planet. The character of John Carter is in all the books and in our day is considered the first space hero. Carter has become a paradigm of the hero in all areas of popular culture, from comics books, illustration and animation, television and now cinema. In fact, John Carter has been a source of inspiration for some of the most creative minds of the last century.

Undoubtedly, John Carter's heroic figure has inspired screenwriter and director Andrew Stanton, Oscar winner, who read the books when he was 12 years old and became a total fan. Stanton's dream of seeing the Burroughs characters on the big screen has finally been made since Walt Disney Pictures now premieres John Carter To commemorate the anniversary of the book.

When the movie was riding, Stanton was visiting a small group to the Barsoom Studios and recognized his passion for these books. Surrounded by magnificent drawings and made models, Stanton spoke enthusiasm about the project. "Almost everyone knows the book Tarzan who also wrote Burroughs, "says Stanton." That is the book that made him rich and incredibly famous. But when I was a child, the Mars series seemed more entertaining. I was very intrigued that fictitious world, the characters and the stages. ‘A princess of Mars’, which would later be called ‘under the moons of Mars’, is considered the Rosetta Stone of Science Fiction. For me, this and all the books of the series that came out later were the equivalent of current Harry Potter's books. ”

Before starting working in John Carter, Stanton forged a magnificent and prolific career in the animated cinema. Stanton has won the Academy's Oscars twice for the best animated film. Once for Looking for Nemo and another for Wall-E. He wrote and directed both tapes. The scripts of Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3and Vermin. A miniature adventure and produced Monstruos, S.A., Up and Partially cloudy.

“In 2006, when I was halfway from Wall-E, I started thinking about what I wanted to do later. The idea of seeing the story of Mars on the screen, the work of Burroughs, excited me. I called Disney and asked: ‘Friends, would you give me the opportunity to do this project? I see it as a hybrid, with computer generated by computer and real action. Let's say half and half. You may have doubts about the real action part, but what I am sure is to be able to do the computer generated. ”I tried luck. And they said yes.”

Stanton began writing the script of John Carter With Mark Andrews, who was head of History in Ratatouille and The incredible ones And who is running Indomitable, Pixar's next movie. They discovered that they had been fans of the Barsoon series in their childhood and while they wrote the script "they exchanged geeks." "Then, when the script was complicated, we understood that we needed another writer to continue advancing while we started preparing the movie," says Stanton. “At a Christmas party someone told me that Michael Chabon, who won the Pulitzer Award for‘ The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay ’, was very fond of Burroughs' books. We were little.

How it was filmed

In the technical aspect, shooting scenes with actors who made Tharks meant physical and technical problems for all. After seeing a real -scale model of one of them in Barsoom, it was easy to understand why: they measure three meters and have green skin, fangs and four arms.

"I thought:" Well, I have two computer -generated protagonists who are on the screen almost as long as the real ones. So I need to be sure that they are well made and that the public believes they are real, "says Stanton. “As spectators, our grammar to understand and believe the physical signals is on a scale that goes from large movements to young. The desert at 38 degrees uploaded to some strides? ’And they all said:‘ Where do you have to sign? ’It was the best way to sell them the merchandise, telling them the truth no matter how horrible it was.”

The actors who play the Tharks also wore facial cameras to capture all their expressions and the movements of their faces. "Luckily, the Tharks carry stilts," says Stanton. And he adds: "That way we were able to place the cameras where we needed them as if they were part of the facial structure. Thus, the actors could use the cameras for the character and not be heavy and upset."

The Stanton may be concerned with the passage of the animated films to shoot real action, but his fears were dissipated on the first day on the set. “On the first day, Lynn arrived dressed as Dejah, Taylor de Carter and Samantha Morton wore his quirky suit. I was behind the camera and they passed in front of me to place themselves in the plane. I could not believe it. I had not wanted to think at that time, I had banished it from my mind. I was afraid to feel too overwhelmed or intimate.

The truth is that the big surprise was to see the little difference between animation and real action, "says the director." They asked me how it had been working with people. And I always said that in Pixar I work with 200 people every day and that I do not talk to computers. I don't tell computers what they have to do. I speak with an artist about a suit that will be designed, where you have to put the camera and about the motivation of an actor. None of that changed while rolling ‘John Carter’. The difference was in the environment and in the immediacy of the creative decisions he had to take. I had to talk about this. ”

Stanton also worked closely with the production designer Nathan Crowley to create a Martian world as he had never seen. He wanted the public to see Mars in a totally new way. In the lexicon of science fiction there are many clichés about the appearance that Mars and the Martians. If we rely on the drawings and paintings that visitors saw, it is clear that they have achieved it.

"I want the public to feel that things really happen in this film, to see the disorder and rawness of reality," says the director. “I have approached the film as a kind of documentary about travel, as someone who was documenting about Mars as if it were a foreign country in the past. The book takes place in 1912 and delves into the time before the change of the century, so the description of the earth corresponds to that time. That allowed me Be aged and used by the passage of time.

Stanton adds: “Mars is a desert and dying planet. We end up using real locations such as the ancient city of Petra and other places in Jordan that we retouch very slightly. It is wonderful because in those places ancient history is built in the rock. You realize that the story is built on an earlier stage of history, and that people forms layers, like the sediment. Every time I put the television I learn something new in the discovery Channel about ancient cultures.

Stanton stressed that “we have been working to replace everything with computer generated elements and to expand the worlds. Everything is going well and the truth is that it looks very good. And it has the subtleties that I wanted. If tomorrow I had to roll another movie, I would do exactly the same as in John Carter“.

The filming of John Carter It began in the United Kingdom on January 4, 2010. The bulk of the filming under study (together with the external sequences set on Earth) took place in the Shepperton Studios in London and in the Longcross Studios of Chelburn, and lasted four months.

At the end of April, the film's team moved to Utah to shoot another 12 weeks with locations in Moab, Lake Powell, Las Salinas del Delta, Hanksville (where NASA has tested robotic vehicles), and Big Water -a huge slate and granulated stone plateau that extends to an impressive circle of red gap Stoircase-Scalante National Monument.

A piece of Mars

Although John Carter It contains a good number of visual effects, the filmmakers wanted to use locations and natural landscapes to roll the action. Producer Jim Morris explains why. "As far as possible, we decided to roll in real locations and minimize the construction of digital sets so that the public has the feeling that the places are real. We hope that this will add a layer of authenticity that will contribute to the credibility and realism of the film."

"It is what I call our little‘ piece ’of Mars," says producer Colin Wilson when referring to the locations in Utah, although the truth is that ‘small’ is not the best word to define a set that extends in bird's view. The remains of a Martian city will end digitally in postproduction using the grandiosity of natural enclaves. "Our philosophy has been based on using practical locations with real sets and scenarios that mark a milestone in our digital world," explains Wilson. "The buildings only have a finished plant, but in the movie the public will see Torres and more towers."

However, on the set, the mixture of traditional realization and computer generated by computer becomes an art thanks to Stanton's mastery and its production team.

For Nathan Crowley, production designer, creating the appearance of three different cultures marked the starting point of production design. "In Barsoom we cover three cultures: Zodanga, Helium and the Thark culture. As there were three cultures we needed three different types of architecture. For example, I have created what I call‘ ancient modernism ’and I have adapted it for the Thark creatures that measure 2.40 meters. I have taken the modernist architecture of the 60 The buildings collapsed to create the collapsed cities.

When designing costumes for John Carter, the biggest source of inspiration by Mayes C. Rubeo, costume designer, was undoubtedly director Andrew Stanton. He explains it: "Andrew's vision is Barsoom! It is as if he had made a round trip to Barsoom and had registered all the data in his brain. It has been of great help because he is a true visionary and understands the importance of my work."

Working in a movie of the fantastic genre gave Mayes a great creative freedom. “He wanted to reproduce an old look but within a science fiction film since this vision invented Burroughs a hundred years ago. He had to belong to the fantastic genre with a lot of imagination and color. The way in which the Barsoomians carry the accessories, the hairstyles or a particular element of a suit has a strong impact on the film and contributes to differences to the inhabitants of the two cities. I performed a work of exhaustive documentation. We achieve that the appearance of tribes was effective and dramatic at the same time. ”

In addition to the costumes, the process of giving life to the characters was the responsibility of the director and the actors, without forgetting the teachers of the visual effects and the magicians of makeup that contributed to the characters their tribal features.

In the case of Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins, which have human form in the film, the process was more direct but physically exhausting. "It is the most physical role I have done in my whole life," Kitsch says about John Carter, his heroic character that has freed himself from the physical limitations imposed by the severity of the earth. "The jumps, the dangerous scenes, learn to handle the sword ... the truth is that all the scenes on Mars have been exhausting."

"They hung us in all the imaginable ways," says Lynn Collins. It is clear that the princess qualities of his character are up to his warrior skills. "After making this movie, my fear of heights has disappeared completely."

However, for the actors who make the papers of Marcians "Thark" of Stanton, the process is more complex. For example, Willem Dafoe Tars Tarkas, for example, will be an alien of 2.75 meters with four arms, so highlights John Carter. On the set, Dafoe serves as stilts to match the height of his character. It carries the body covered with a gray monkey marked with black moles. They are reference points for animators who will recreate their movements digitally in postproduction. On the face it also has black moles and two cameras, suspended from a helmet, record their facial movements.

"They got totally into the skin of the characters," says Wilson when referring to the cast. "We told all our characters Thark what we were going to happen. When they left the meetings with Andrew they asked where it had to be signed. And I think that enthusiasm is due to the fact that the characters are very well written. For them, tell a story that has never been told and create a world that nobody has seen constitutes a unique opportunity."

And the director Andrew Stanton is excited to tell that story that no one has told before and create that world that anyone has seen. And it is the same enthusiasm that produced the reading of the books as a child. He states: "My goal is to want to believe it. Believe that there is actually. That feeling you have when you read a good fantastic book in which you wonder: what would it be ...?"