Willem Dafoe Headed For ‘Mars’

Willem Dafoe, creepy, cool, all-around badass, has joined the cast of the Disney-backed adaptation of ‘John Carter of Mars.’ Dafoe will be starring alongside Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins. The film is to be directed by Andrew Stanton (‘Wall-E’).In the film, Dafoe will be playing the role of Tars Tarkas, a green Martian warrior, who creates an alliance with John Carter.  Carter, to b eplayed by Kitsch, is a Civil War vet who finds himself transported to the red planet.

Dafoe’s character is one that appears in all 11 novels chronicalling John Carter’s time on Mars.  The novels were written by Edgar Rice Burroughs and published as serials beginning in 1912.  Over the years, many attempts have been made at adapting the series to the big screen.  Strangely enough, the title ‘John Carter of Mars’ was not used for any of the seralized novels until the last one debuted in 1941.

Source: Variety