Taylor Kitsch has officially been cast as the titular character of Andrew Stanton’s “John Carter of Mars” adaptation.

Kitsch will be playing the titular Carter, a Civil War veteran who is transported (via astral projection, leaving his lifeless body behind) to Mars. There he meets the lovely Martian princess Dejah Thoris, wins her hand, rediscovers his own humanity, and rescues Mars. The film is tipped to begin filming in 2010, and they’ve been scouting Utah for Martian locations.

I haven’t seen him in “Wolverine” yet, and I don’t plan to, but I’ve enjoyed Kitsch’s perfomances in the television version of “Friday Night Light”. Though he doesn’t have the starpower of some of the other options, I think he has the potential to be a fine John Carter.

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