I first read Edgar Rice Burroughs A Princess of Mars when I was a very young man. After reading it, I devoured the entire series of books in a matter of weeks. They were just that good.

I’ve always thought the books would make great movies and now that thought has been turned to reality by Disney with its upcoming big screen adaptation of the series: John Carter. The film, which is directed by Andrew Stanton, features what looks to be a good cast including Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins and William Dafoe.

The trailer was released on Apple’s iTunes this morning and we’ve got it for you today. In case you’re not familiar with the story, here’s a bit of the official synopsis to get you in the mood:

“The film tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom (Mars) and its people rests in his hands.”

Check out the trailer after the break. John Carter arrives in theaters on March 9, 2012.

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The world of great artists lost an icon today as Frank Frazetta, a man whose art most often depicted fantastic worlds full of larger than life heroes fighting with swords and battle axes to defend busty, helpless women from horrible beasts, died today in Fort Myers, Fla. He was 82.

According to reports, his death was the result of a stroke and was confirmed by Rob Pistella and Steve Ferzoco, his business managers. Frazetta, who had a history of strokes, had returned from a Mother’s Day dinner with his family on Sunday night and complained of feeling ill. Frazetta was rushed to the hospital, where he later died.

Frazetta’s work began many years ago on daily comic strips like Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and Li’l Abner. He then moved on to comic books in the 1950s. In the mid 1960′s Frazetta became even more popular and began illustrating pulp heroes like Conan the Barbarian and John Carter of Mars for their comics and books.

Because of his style and penchant for scantly clad women, he also illustrated album covers for various heavy metal bands such as Molly Hatchet and Nazareth. His work was also an inspiration to many artists working in comics and graphic novels and the scope of that influence can only be hinted at by the amount of activity on Twitter today at the news of his death.

Obviously, he will be missed.

It’s ironic how we were just having the discussion on this week’s podcast that Sam Worthington feels like a forced “action star” in Hollywood today, as news is now hitting that Taylor Kitsch has been cast to star in Peter Berg’s film adaptation of the timeless board game Battleship. From Heat Vision:

Pete Berg is directing the action adventure movie, whose story has drawn heat from some quarters for adding an “alien invasion” element to what has been traditionally seen as a grounded Naval game. The script, by Jon and Erich Hoeber, sees an international fleet come together to battle a water-bound armada of otherworldly origin.

In “Battleship,” Kitsch is playing a Naval commander named Alex Hopper, described as “wildly spirited” and “a great seaman but a lousy politician.”

Kitsch was a relative unknown a few years ago, but since being cast as Gambit in last year’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he’s already been cast as the titular lead in Pixar’s upcoming John Carter of Mars as well as being the lead in the TV adapatation of Friday Night Lights. Much like how Worthington was put over the top by getting roles in Avatar, Terminator: Salvation, and Clash of the Titans.

With this new role, it could seem that Kitsch is going to be the next “Worthington”, but what could that mean for the first “Worthington”? Is there room in Hollywood, amidst the stack of reboots and remakes as far as the eye can see, for two actors that Hollywood is forcing down our throats?

Lots of names come to mind when thinking of the more popular film score composers of the past two decades. Names like Danny Elfman, John Williams, and Quincy Jones have dominated the craft for so long, it’s refreshing when a newcomer joins the ranks. In the last 5 years, Michael Giacchino has earned his slot in the Mount Everest of film composers.

Giacchino has shown his incredible range scoring projects such as LOST, Speed Racer, The Incredibles, Star Trek, and finally getting himself an Oscar for his work on Disney’s Up. It looks like the major studio isn’t letting go of Giacchino any time soon, as they have just hired him to compose the score for the upcoming space adventure John Carter of Mars.

It makes sense that Disney would go with this pick, given his work on their more recent Pixar films, especially with Pixar veteran Andrew Stanton directing the film. While that connection makes the most sense, it could also be attributed to the amazing score Giacchino composed for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, which could easily go down as one of the best sci-fi scores of recent history.

Even with this news, John Carter of Mars is most definitely not shaping up to be a small picture. With Disney backing the film, and a cast made up of Taylor Kitsch, Mark Strong, Willem Dafoe, Bryan Cranston, Dominic West, Polly Walker, Thomas Hayden Church, Samantha Morton and Lynn Collins, you can expect to see big things from the upcoming sci-fi epic.

Fans of the critically acclaimed Breaking Bad are finally getting their wish for more Bryan Cranston. The actor, who picked up an Emmy for his work on the AMC series, has just been signed to fight alongside the titular hero in the upcoming John Carter Of Mars.

Cranston will play a Civil War colonel who clashes with Carter in the early moments of the film. The movie is based on the series of novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs about a Civil War veteran who is transported to another body on the red planet of Mars, where he embarks on an epic journey.

This is quite late casting, as the film reportedly begins production next week. Cranston will join the ranks of an impressive ensemble cast including James Purefoy, Mark Strong, Dominic West, Thomas Hayden Church, Lynn Collins, Willem Defoe, Samantha Morton, Polly Walker, and Taylor Kitsch as Carter.

The screenplay comes from Michael Chabon (Spider-Man 2) with Andrew Stanton (WALL-E) taking the helm. Disney is expected to give the film a mid-2012 release date.

This week on The Flickcast finds our heroes neck deep in another round of scintillating and sometimes heated discussion about many topics. Some of these topics include the new director for the BioShock movie, Christopher Nolan’s Inception, the Excalibur reboot, new casting for John Carter of Mars, reaction to James Cameron’s Avatar footage and Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.

The team also made some new picks this week including Christina’s pick of FX’s series Rescue Me, Matt’s pick of the awesome Batman: Arkham Asylum game and Chris’ pick of the new ABC drama Defying Gravity, starring Ron Livingston and Malik Yoba.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.

Thanks for listening.

According to Variety, Willem Dafoe has joined the cast of Disney’s John Carter of Mars, which already includes Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins. In the film, which is being directed by Wall-E helmer Andrew Stanton, Dafoe will play Tars Tarkas, a fierce green Martian warrior, who’s unusual among his savage race for his ability to feel compassion and empathy.

In the film, which is based on the first of Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars novels A Princess of Mars, Tars develops an alliance with John Carter after Carter, a Civil War veteran, is miraculously transported, via astral projection, to Mars. Once there, Carter meets Martian princess Dejah Thoris, wins her hand, rediscovers his own humanity after the ravages of war, teams up with Tars Tarkas and eventually becomes Warlord of Mars.

And did I mention that Tars Tarkas is also about eight or ten feet tall with four arms and green skin? At least he’s that way in the book. Fortunately, this isn’t the first time Dafoe has been green in a film, so it shouldn’t be too much trouble for him. The real question is how will he play someone with four arms who’s that tall? Of course, he’s a very good actor, so I’ll bet he can pull it off — with a little help from some movie magic.

Last week on The Flickcast, the team discussed and debated a slew of new topics including Apple announcements from the World Wide Developer Conference, the recent E3 gaming convention, The Hangover, Kirsten Dunst joining Spider-Man 4, movies in 3D and a whole lot more.

This week, Chris and Matt have to go on without Christina but are joined by special guest Rick Marshall of MTV’s Splashpage and Movie’s Blog to talk comics, movies and all things geek. Some of the topics discussed this time around include John Carter of Mars casting, the rebirth of Captain America, why Tim Burton should return to the Batman franchise.

They also talked about Rick’s favorite comic book-to-film adaptations (including Iron Man and Man-Thing), the disappointment of Spider-Man 3, the power of Twitter in movie marketing and upcoming comic-book-to-film adaptations including Whiteout, Scott Pilgrim and Iron Man 2.

Chris, Matt and Rick also made some picks this week including one of Rick’s favorite comics, Sleeper, Matt’s pick of one of his favorite movies called Fortress, featuring Christopher Lambert and Loryn Locklin, and Chris’ pick of John Carpenter’s Escape from New York.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.