Pulitzer prize-winning author Michael Chabon has been hired to polish a script by Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, Wall-E) and Mark Andrews for the Pixar/Disney adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars.  Chabon was quoted on the Amazing Website of Kavalier & Clay confirming the deal, “I’ve been hired to do some revisions to an already strong script by Andrew Stanton and Mark Andrews.”

ERB’s John Carter character has enjoyed an extensive career in other media especially comic books where he has appeared in Big Little Books in the 1930s and 40s, Dell comics in the 1950s, DC and Marvel comics in the 1970s, and with fellow ERB creation Tarzan in comic strips and a Dark Horse mini-series in the 1990s, and in Alan Moore’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. 

There have been many previous attempts to create a movie (or series of movies) based on ERB's Martian novels.  Disney/Touchstone came close in the late 1980s with director John McTiernan (Die Hard) in charge. Paramount acquired the rights in 2002 and put considerable effort into the project and numerous directors including Robert Rodriguez (Sin City), Kelly Conran (Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow) and Jon Favreau (Iron Man, see 'John Carter Gets a Director').  Disney reacquired the rights (see 'John Carter of Mars Headed for Disney') in 2007 and Andrew Stanton has confirmed that John Carter of Mars will be his next project for Pixar/Disney.