Rumors began appearing in early 2007 that the Walt Disney Company was in negotiations to acquire the rights to the property for development through Pixar Animation, or that it had already done so.
On May 22, 2007, it was revealed that Brad Bird's first live-action film would be 1906. The current director of A Princess of Mars is said to be Andrew Stanton, although it was revealed that the film will use a combination of animation and live-action. I'm guessing the film will release in 2012.
According to this link, pre-production on this project it "gathering steam":
Pre-production for the Disney/Pixar "John Carter of Mars" film is gathering steam.
The Pixar creative team spent Tuesday morning exploring the massive Edgar Rice Burroughs archives in the ERB, Inc. offices on Ventura Blvd. Pixar's Jim Morris (vp), Andrew Stanton (director), Mark Andrews (script) discussed the "John Carter of Mars" film project with Burroughs representatives, Danton Burroughs, Sandra Galfas and Jim Sullos.
All six members at the meeting expressed a deep commitment to the project, acknowledging that they had been inspired by Burroughs' creations from a very early age. This is evidenced in the excitement held for the John Carter property and the plans for a film trilogy faithful to the Burroughs books. Projected release date is sometime before 2012.
Danton Burroughs presented the creative team with a wealth of resources, including art samples and books by ERB scholars such as Irwin Porges and John F. Roy. They noted that their major resource to date had been the thousands of official ERB, Inc. Webpages and Webzines.
[via ERBzine]Click here for more info and speculation.
Last updated on October 7th, 2007.
