12 Years On, The Cult Sci-Fi Tom Cruise Wanted To Star In Deserves Way More Than Its Box Office Disaster Suggests

Tom Cruise has been up for many roles throughout his illustrious career, but one cult science fiction film that he campaigned hard for ended up being a box office disaster, despite deserving so much better. Kicking off his career in the early 80s, Tom Cruise has always been one of the biggest movie stars on the planet, with an impressive filmography to boot. Even then, there have been roles throughout Tom Cruise's career that he lobbied for, or was almost cast in, that never ended up working out.

There have been some major movies that Tom Cruise almost starred in, but didn't end up getting, including Ghost, Wall Street, A Beautiful Mind, Iron Man, The Shawshank Redemption, Goodfellas, and many more over his career. While these are all fantastic movies in their own right, there was another movie that Tom Cruise really wanted to star in, and was attached to the IP back in the 1980s, the infamous John Carter from 2012.

Tom Cruise Wanted To Play John Carter

Tom Cruise has long been one of the biggest movie stars on the planet, turning out incredible blockbusters throughout his career, but there was one movie he wanted to star in that never happened, John Carter. In fact, The Wrap reported that Cruise campaigned hard for the role of John Carter, but never really stood a chance, as director Andrew Stanton had made up his mind about casting Taylor Kitsch in the role instead. In that same report, Stanton opened up about Cruise wanting to play the role, stating:

"I had Taylor already in mind by the time Tom made his interest known. Tom had a long history with the material, so it wasn’t too surprising to discover he still had interest in it. He was a consummate professional in his discussions with me about the role, and beyond respectful to the fact I was already on an audition path with Taylor...We agreed to talk further if I were to pass on Taylor, but I obviously didn’t. It was as simple and non-controversial as that."

For Cruise, it looks like his push to star in the 2012 film was a few decades too late, given that he was tied to a John Carter project all the way back in the 80s, but the project fell apart due to the fact that the visual effects at the time were not ready to portray the source material in the best possible way. Tom Cruise was about 20 years older than Kitsch, and if the movie had been successful, it makes sense that Disney and Andrew Stanton would want a younger actor like Kitsch helming the franchise.

John Carter Was A Disaster For Disney

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When it was released in 2012, Disney was banking on John Carter making a serious amount of money, as the film had a production budget of $263,700,000. Unfortunately, their faith in the project was misplaced, as John Carter only ended up bringing in $282 million at the worldwide box office. Because of the high budget compared to what it made, John Carter is considered the biggest box office bomb of all time, and Disney lost over $200 million on the film. It also failed to connect with critics or audience members, with each giving middling reviews.

Taylor Kitsch is incredible in Friday Night Lights, but when movie studios tried to make him the face of their blockbusters, it didn't work out so well.

It was an unmitigated disaster and has yet to be topped by an even bigger flop in the 12 years since it was first released. Not only was it a tough sell, given that John Carter was adapting incredibly old source material, but also because of the lack of star power, as Taylor Kitsch isn't near the same level as many other A-list actors, including Tom Cruise. Kitsch is incredible in Friday Night Lights, but when movie studios tried to make him the face of their blockbusters, it didn't work out so well, and John Carter is the biggest example.

12 Years On, John Carter Deserves Way More

More than 12 years removed from John Carter, it deserves way more praise than it got at the time of release, and definitely doesn't deserve to be remembered as the biggest box office bomb of all time. In fact, the movie is actually pretty good and, given that its source material, A Princess of Mars, is one of the most influential pieces of science fiction, John Carter features a lot of tropes that would go on to influence a number of properties, including Star Wars, Dune, and Flash Gordon.

The biggest sin that John Carter committed was being released decades after the movies that were influenced by the story were made, making it feel more generic than it should be.

Despite being a rather run-of-the-mill story for the new standard for science fiction, John Carter is beautiful to look at, as the CGI at the time was really impressive, bringing to life Mars, and the beings that live there beautifully. Even though some may say that Taylor Kitsch was miscast, there is still a lot of charm he has shown in other projects, like Friday Night Lights, and Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris was wonderful. John Carter may be one of the biggest bombs of all time, but it is a fun time at the movies.

Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star 0/10 Leave a Review Your changes have been saved My List My Favorite Movies My Watchlist Success! John Carter Adapted from Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars, Disney's John Carter brings the author's Barsoom series to life. When American Confederate Civil War captain John Carter accidentally transports himself to Mars, he soon becomes entangled in the planet's own internal power struggles. Using the increased strength and speed afforded to him by Mars' atmosphere, Carter fights to achieve peace on the distant planet known by the natives as Barsoom. Where to Watch stream

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buy Not available Not available Not available *Availability in US Release Date March 9, 2012 Runtime 132 minutes Cast Mark Strong , Willem Dafoe , Taylor Kitsch , Lynn Collins , Bryan Cranston Director Andrew Stanton Writers Michael Chabon , Mark Andrews , Andrew Stanton Studio(s) Disney Distributor(s) Disney Expand

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