This weekend Thomas Haden Church appeared on Reel Talk with Ben Lyons and revealed that he has been cast in the soon-to-film Disney film John Carter of Mars, based on Edgar Rice Burrough’s A Princess of Mars. But who will he playing? All that Church said was: “I’m probably going to do a huge science fiction drama at Disney called ‘John Carter of Mars’ and that’s a very dramatic role.”
So who will he be playing? While some people speculate he’ll be a bad guy I suspect that his role will be one that will involve the work of Pixar’s animators (as you probably know, Pixar’s Andrew Stanton is directing the film): Tars Tarkas.
If you haven’t read Burrough’s series of books about a Civil War soldier teleported to Mars, you wouldn’t know Tars Tarkas. He’s Carter’s best Martian buddy (although the Martians call their planet Barsoom), and he’s a Thark: a nine foot tall green insect headed guy with four arms. He’s pictured above, fighting alongside John Carter (who yes, is naked. Nobody wears clothes on Barsoom).
Tarkas is special among Tharks, who are warlike and have no sense of humor: he once fell in love. He’s a pretty sympathetic character, and Carter helps him become Jeddak (kind of king) of the Tharks in the books. Tarkas appears in later volumes. It seems to me that this is the ideal role for Thomas Haden Church. We’ll find out soon enough.