The Martians are Coming, the Martians are Coming to the Planet Barsoom aka Moab, Utah

Online, June 11, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Movie making is on the rise again in Moab, Utah with the 2010 Disney production of "John Carter of Mars" a film based on the first story to feature John Carter, A Princess of Mars, which was serialized from 1912 and first published as a novel in 1917. Carter portrayed by Taylor Kitsch, is an American Civil War veteran who goes to sleep in a cave after being chased by Apache Indians and wakes up on Mars, whose inhabitants refer to as "Barsoom". Also in production is "127 Hours", the movie/documentary of Aron Ralston (James Franco), the mountain climber who had to amputate his own arm to survive, after it was trapped by a boulder while canyoneering in Blue John Canyon near Moab, Utah.

Hollywood's love affair with Moab began in 1949 when Director John Ford filmed "Wagon Master" and returned in 1950 to film "Rio Grande" starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara and yet again in 1963 with "Cheyenne Autumn" with Ricardo Montalban, Sal Mineo, and Karl Malden. While filming the "Comancheros" in 1961, John Wayne remarked that Moab, "Was where God put the West" and the next decade Warner Brothers, Columbia Productions, MGM Studios and 20th Century Fox were busy filming westerns in Moab.

Interestingly, only in the 1967 film "Fade In" starring Burt Reynolds, did Moab actually portray itself; and ironically, it was a film about filming a movie, shot simultaneously with the movie "Blue". While "Blue" starring Ricardo Maltaban and Karl Malden, was a success, "Fade In", where a female film editor falls for a local cowboy in a small town, was never released theatrically and on the video release, the film was titled "Iron Cowboy".

With its amazingly diverse terrain, producers found that Moab could take on the face of most any place on Earth and beyond. With hoodoos and arches and its red rock landscape, Moab was perfect for filming of "Spacehunter; Adventures in the Forbidden Zone", where Moab becomes the planet Terra XI and the planet "Barsoom" in "John Carter; A Princess of Mars".
"Thelma & Louise" was an American road movie starring Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon, and Brad Pitt, in his first significant role in a major Hollywood film. The pair start in Oklahoma with a desire to get to Mexico through Texas alluring viewers with the perceived size and freedom of America; although primary filming locations for the movie took place in rural areas around Moab and Bakersfield, California. The famous Grand Canyon scene was not even the Grand Canyon but the Colorado River flowing through the canyons near Dead Horse Point State Park, southwest of Moab. The Colorado River has been portrayed as the Rio Grande River and it became the Nile River in the "Greatest Story Ever Told".

Other well known movies to have scenes filmed in Moab include, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", "City Slickers II", "Larger than Life", "Con-Air", "The Adventures of Joe Dirt", "Austin Powers 3" and "Mission Impossible II". The pilot for the MacGyver series was filmed at Dead Horse Point State Park as were 2 segments of the hit series "Touched by an Angel". More recent activitiy includes "Don't Come Knocking" with Sam Shepherd and Jessica Lange, "The Canyon" with Yvonne Strahovski and Eion Bailey (where Moab again is used to depict the Grand Canyon). "Star Trek" filmed in nearby San Rafael Sweel and "Remember I'll Always Love You" a movie filmed in English for German release.

Music video & commercial producers are also drawn to Moab. While too many to mention, many producers went to great length and cost to produce their work. Jon Bon Jovi took his own lyrics seriously when filming the video for "Blaze of Glory"; he and his crew camped out for two nights high atop a remote butte in the desert outside Moab, Utah. In the 60's Chevrolet was the first to film a commercial atop Castleton Tower, a 400 foot pinnacle southeast of Moab. A stripped-down 64' Impala was deposited along with nervous model Diedre Johnson, atop the tower by helicopter. After the filming, however, a stiff wind came up and the helicopter was unable to land and whisk away Diedre, so she ended up spending a few extra hours huddled inside the car on the tower
. Once the beauty of canyon country became known, a multitude of commercials were filmed in the area and both Ford and Toyota also filmed commercials on the Castleton Towers.

The early westerns help Moab begin its journey to the great adventure destination it has become today and Hollywood continues to bring worldwide attention to the beautiful scenery of Canyonlands and Arches National Parks to which Moab is home. A copy of Moab Movie Auto Tour brochure can be found at www.discovermoab.com/pdf/movie.pdf. The Moab Area Travel Council is also available to serve you at 800-635-6622 or at www.discovermoab.com.