A $250 million (or more) mistake?

If you could see a bomb about to go off, would you run away?

Obviously the answer is yes. Other than someone with a death wish, who would want to do something like that?

Disney might have a situation like that coming soon with "John Carter." And if the story on Deadline today is to be believed, it's going to be bad.

As I was reading the article earlier today I kept rolling my eyes, because it's something Stephanie and I have been talking about for months.

At the D23 convention in August, I was treated to a serious hard sell of the film during the movies panel. While every other film had just enough time to bring out a star, answer a question or two and show a clip (some didn't even get that), "John Carter" got the royal treatment of a lot of questions, a lot of background and many, many clips.

Stephanie's blunt reaction to me telling her this at the time was "they have to make that money back!"

And it's a lot of money. The budget is reportedly anywhere from $200-$300, and that's not even including marketing.

That is a massive amount of money for a movie based on source material that is not widely known to the general public. I'm not bashing author Edgar Rice Burroughs, but not a lot of people know about "The Princess of Mars" series. They started getting published almost a 100 years ago.

And nothing against Taylor Kitsch, but it's a lot of money to throw at a basically unknown guy. And yes, I'm aware he was in "Wolverine" and "Friday Night Lights," but does "Wolverine" really count? Just as Dan about Kitsch.

Let me be clear: I personally don't hate this film or anything, I just call it like I see it. The budget is just way too high. Yes, some of the effects look cool, but so do the effects in "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance."

Could I be wrong? Heck yeah. I didn't think "Avatar" would make any money.

Fun fact: The last version of this film was in 2009 and it starred Antonio Sabado Jr. and Traci Lords... yes, THAT Traci Lords.