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Release Date Shifts - 'John Carter of Mars' vs. 'Prometheus' in 2012?

by Alex Billington
January 19, 2011
Source: The Wrap

This seems odd. Disney has announced a few release date shifts for two major projects in 2012. The first is John Carter of Mars, the epic sci-fi Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptation directed by Andrew Stanton. It was originally scheduled for summer on June 8th, 2012, but The Wrap says Disney has moved it to March 9th. Not a big concern - except that Fox just scheduled Ridley Scott's Prometheus, that Alien-prequel-turned-original-sci-fi project, in that exact same date. Uh oh. Two humongous new sci-fi movies going head to head in 2012? One of them is going to move out of that spot, that's for sure and I'm expecting it to be Prometheus.

In addition to shifting John Carter of Mars up to that now controversial March slot, Disney has pushed Tim Burton's stop-motion animated Frankenweenie feature adaptation from that same March release date to October 5th, 2012 instead. Frankenweenie's voice cast includes Martin Landau, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara and Martin Short. Disney's John Carter of Mars massive cast includes Taylor Kitsch, Mark Strong, Willem Dafoe, Thomas Haden Church, Samantha Morton and Lynn Collins. Stanton has finished shooting the film on set in London and on location in Arizona, and is working on a year of post-production CGI. And you can read all about how awesome Ridley Scott's Prometheus sounds in our recent update on the project.

Update (Jan 27th): As I predicted, 20th Century Fox just decided to move Ridley Scott's Prometheus from the same date as John Carter to a much more lucrative summer date on June 8th, 2012. Casting is also underway, as Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender have been confirmed for lead roles. This is great, as it shows Fox is confident that Ridley's epic return to sci-fi will be a big summer blockbuster. Can't wait!

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