Space Ships In John Carter Will Be Like 18th Century Tall Ships, Says Star
Dominic West – Sab Than in the Disney/Pixar space opera –
reveals some tantalising titbits about the eagerly-awaited Martian epic
sfx ~ November 1 2011

Actor Dominic West, who stars as the villainous Sab Than in Pixar’s first ever live-action film, the Mars-set John Carter, has revealed to SFX that the film is going to have a strong swashbuckling vibe.

“We were flying around on ropes and fighting,” he says. “It’s shot on film and I think it’s the last film Disney will ever shoot on film. It’s got an old fashioned feel to it, at least that’s what I think [director] Andrew [Stanton]’s going for. The spaceships are like tall ships from the 18th century – there are lots of ropes, there’s lots of brass and wood and huge sails that are powered by light. The spaceships are actually ships.” . . .

West describes his character, Sab Than, Prince of Zodanga, as “a fairly straightforward evil villain who wants to take over Mars and get the girl. So that’s what he tries to do but inevitably the hero stops him doing that.”

“It feels extraordinary walking onto a set they spent $350 million on, or being in a film with a huge budget like that. That in itself was very exhilarating, then meeting and working with Andrew Stanton was really interesting because he’s one of the best around at the moment.” . . . “I said to him, ‘It seems incredibly efficient, your film; it’s really well run and I got scripts through four months ahead.’ It just seemed really efficient. And he said, ‘God, it’s so inefficient compared to animation – it’s incredible inefficient!’ I suppose it’s because there are so many more variables than in animation. But he took that very much in his stride. Certainly in terms of story – and how to construct a story – he’s probably the best there is in the world at the moment in terms of his track record. It was fascinating working with him and also seeing the technology.

“In terms of acting it’s difficult because you’re usually acting to a cross on a big green screen. I tend to be doing a lot of that, running up with a stick that was half-formed on a set that was only half built and reacting to a tennis ball. It’s a whole different discipline.” And he’s very eager to see the final film: “I can’t wait, I think it’ll look like nothing you’ve seen before. It starts off as a Western and then it goes to Mars and becomes Star Wars. It’s a pretty extraordinary film. More>>>