John Carter of Mars News

Now that Jon Favreau has been announced as the director of Marvel's Iron Man, it would seem that John Carter of Mars will once again fall into development hell. "I really want to do John Carter of Mars," Favreau said. "I was developing that thing for six months. Ultimately, I think the timing was bad at Paramount because as they said yes to J.J. Abrams doing the Star Trek stuff, they said no to the John Carter science fiction project."

With Iron Man set to begin filming in January for a 2008 release, Favreau hopes there will be time to leverage John Carter of Mars back into play. "I'm hoping that if this Iron Man goes well over there at Paramount, it might get them on a little more ambitious with the chances that they're willing to take on material. If they believe in me and they want Iron Man 2, maybe they'll do John Carter because it's a project they've been trying to make. It's been a very long time with dozens of directors but I really want to try to hang in there and get that thing done. We have a great script and great artwork."