Two-time Academy Award winner Andrew Stanton has more than proven his filmmaking credentials, just not in the live-action realm. While John Carter may have gained a reputation as a cult classic in the decade since its release, there’s no ignoring the fact the lavish sci-fi spectacular ranks as the single biggest bomb in the genre’s history.
One of the most expensive productions Hollywood has ever seen with an eye-watering price tag of $264 million, Taylor Kitsch’s title hero was being lined up as the star of an entire trilogy, only for the opening installment to fall so far into the red that Disney didn’t even bother trying to stop the rights from lapsing back to the estate of creator Edgar Rice Burroughs.
When the dust had settled, John Carter ended up losing $200 million for the Mouse House, sending Stanton scurrying back to his safe haven of Pixar, where he went on to deliver the goods with Finding Dory. It’s to his credit that he hasn’t given up on his dreams of expanding beyond the arena of the animated feature, but you’ve got to think there’s an air of trepidation heading into his return to live-action for In the Blink of an Eye.
According to World of Reel, the ambitious project that was initially described to be tackling the entire history of the world while ruminating on life, love, hope, and connection reportedly begins shooting next month, and it’s coming burdened with production costs said to be anywhere as high as $100 million.
It’s a bold move on both Stanton and Searchlight’s part to hand the brains behind the heftiest sci-fi catastrophe in box office history another nine-figure budget to return to the genre, so we’ll be very curious to see how it all pans out.