In case you haven't been paying attention, John Carter has officially underperformed at the domestic box office. While Disney was hoping that the Andrew Stanton-directed adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' first Barsoom novel would be a smash, it ended up pulling in only $30 million in the US, which wasn't what the studio was hoping for for the $250 million project. Still, while the movie may not have lived up to expectations, that's not stopping Disney from continuing to play the sci-fi game.
According to THR, Disney has hired Max Borenstein to script an epic space adventure called Paladin. While Borenstein is fairly new to the game, having only a 2003 film called Swordswallowers and Thin Men attached to his name, he did write the script for the upcoming adaptation of Joseph Delaney's The Spook's Apprentice, The Seventh Son (which is set to star Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Ben Barnes, Kit Harington and Olivia Williams). The film's plot description is currently being held under wraps, but it is one of the few original projects currently in development by Disney. The project is being produced by Justin Springer, whose previous credits include Tron Legacy and Prom.
I love that Disney isn't giving up on science fiction just yet. Both Tron and John Carter didn't do as well as was hoped, but the studio fortunately still sees the potential in giant sci-fi stories and are still willing to give them a chance on the big screen. Perhaps Paladin will be the film that will turn it around.
