JOHN CARTER Plays the Super Bowl
Yesterday, we wrote that this year’s Super Bowl ads bring new twists; advertisers are using social media both to tease the ads and to make them interactive.
A good example of both trends just appeared on the interwebs; a teaser trailer for the longer Super Bowl teaser trailer (calling M. C. Escher!) of the movie John Carter (based on the first book in the classic series by Edgar Rice Burroughs). The interactive part is signaled by voice-over proclaiming, “For a chance to win tickets to next year’s Super Bowl, look for the exclusive code in the John Carter commercial at this year’s big game!” Viewers can then rush to their computers, pick up their tablets or smart phones to enter the code.
Clearly Disney is pulling out all the stops for John Carter. The first trailer had a “world premiere” on Good Morning America, in early December.
The movie arrives on March 9, with a wide range of tie-ins. Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic pulp fiction John Carter series, also referred to as the Barsoom series, predates his Tarzan series, and was the basis of several graphic novels. The series began with A Princess of Mars, which was first published as a book in 1917 and is the basis for the movie.
There are numerous movie tie-ins (including coloring and activity books, indicating it’s expected to attract kids).
Disney Book Group is releasing a novelization, which also includes the original text of A Princess of Mars, for ages 13 and up.
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Marvel is releasing a “prequel” (ages “13 to 99” — if you’re 100 or over, you’re out of luck),
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Plus a new graphic novel version (also ages “13 to 99”),
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Aimed at collectors, Marvel is also releasing a pricey omnibus of various classic 1970’s graphic novels based on the series, (ages “13 to 99”),
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Disney Book Group is releasing collections of the original novels (the series is in the public domain, so there are several other editions as well as audio versions available. Ebook versions are available from OverDrive.)
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Other volumes in the series are:
Collected John Carter of Mars, The (Swords of Mars, Synthetic Men of Mars, Llana
Collected John Carter of Mars, The (Thuvia, Maid of Mars; The Chessmen of Mars
Disney is also realeasing an “art of the movie” tie-in,
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