Would Tom Cruise's Casting Have Saved John Carter From Disaster?
Hollywood megastar Tom Cruise was apparently offered the main role in John Carter, which could have possibly saved Disney's failed franchise. The film is one of the most famous box office bombs in recent years, with its failure not only shifting the series but Disney itself. While many obstacles were in the way of John Carter's path to success, having Tom Cruise's name attached may have helped avoid them.
John Carter is based on Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom series which started in 1912, with the first novel being titled A Princess of Mars. The Disney film follows the titular Civil War veteran as he is transported to Mars, known to its inhabitants as Barsoom. There, he gets swept into a conflict between the various sects of Mars, and only he can save the planet.
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John Carter was originally planned as a trilogy and was set to be Disney's first big sci-fi series. It was an ambitious project, having spent years in development and garnering an incredibly high budget. However, it didn't pay off. There are many reasons for this, but one of the biggest was the film was hard to market, and having a star as big as Tom Cruise may have helped alleviate some of these troubles.
Of all the projects stuck in development hell, John Carter was probably there the longest. Filmmakers had been trying to adapt A Princess of Mars for decades, with the first attempt occurring all the way back in 1931. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies creator Bob Clampett first approached Burroughs then, with him trying to get it made several times after that. After that, for a time it was in development by Ray Harryhausen in the 1950s, then Disney in the 1980s, then Paramount in
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