The freshly released image of the epic film sees the fearsome creature looking angry as it stands behind the titular character, who is seen trying to pull off a chain.
- November 24, 2011
AceShowbiz -
A new image from "John Carter" has revealed a first look at the fearsome White Ape. Entertainment Weekly has obtained the new still, which sees Taylor Kitsch's titular character pulling off a chain with the angry-looking beast standing behind him while showing off its big teeth.
White Ape is one of the ferocious inhabitants of Mars a.k.a Barsoom in the novel-adapted movie. Offering details about the creatures, director Andrew Stanton told the magazine, "They're sort of an oversized gorilla in the books, and they're kind of ubiquitous. They're littered everywhere through at least the first several novels."
"They were always cool, just from a visceral standpoint, [but] they don't really have a narrative function in the first book," he added. "So what we did is we made the White Apes a formidable creature that you kind of hear about throughout the movie, but you never really witness. There's a subtle sense of anticipation for what these things might be like. "
"John Carter" centers on an American Civil War veteran who suddenly enters a nearly collapse planet Barsoom. There, he becomes a hero who saves the planet from destruction. In his adventure, he meets Tars Tarkas who becomes his ally in rescuing Red Martian princess Dejah Thoris from belligerent four-armed Green Martians.
Speaking of the titular character's adventure in the movie, director Andrew Stanton shared, "I don't want to give any spoilers away, but basically he needs an army to solve his big problem in the third act, and the only army he knows was his previous captors."
"When he goes back, the game has changed, and he gets incarcerated," the Oscar-winning filmmaker continued. "This is what he has to get out of. He has to get out of jail and not get killed by these apes in order to get his bigger problem solved."
Based on Edgar Rice Burroughs classic novel, this fantasy film is scheduled to arrive in U.S. theaters on March 9, 2012. Aside from Taylor Kitsch, it also stars Lynn Collins, Willem Dafoe, Samantha Morton, Dominic West, James Purefoy and Mark Strong.
