Let’s simply get this out of the best way: Mars Assaults! is a film the place Tom Jones fights aliens, Jack Black will get obliterated in his first main studio position, and humanity is saved by a yodeling grandma. That’s not a fever dream — that’s simply the plot. However how did this weird alien invasion comedy turn out to be one of many weirdest, most divisive blockbusters of the Nineties? Why was it stacked with A-list celebrities, most of whom get vaporized in hilarious methods? And do you know it was impressed by a sequence of violent, pulpy buying and selling playing cards from the ’60s — playing cards so graphic they had been pulled off cabinets? Nicely, should you didn’t, or simply need to relive the glory days of the ’90s, then sit again and strap in as we dive into What Occurred to Tim Burton’s Mars Assaults!
Earlier than the CGI Martians melted Congress with their ray weapons and screeching “ACK ACK ACK!” they had been cardboard illustrations. Mars Assaults started life in 1962 as a Topps buying and selling card sequence, cooked up by artist Wally Wooden and painted by the legendary Norman Saunders. The playing cards advised a sequential sci-fi story throughout 55 hand-painted panels — and so they had been gnarly. Melting flesh, skeleton troopers, canine on fireplace. This was not your common baseball card pack. The controversy was speedy. Dad and mom freaked out, PTA teams assembled, and Topps pulled the road earlier than it completed a full run. However many years later, those self same gory playing cards would discover a second life — because of a person who had a factor for the macabre: Tim Burton.
The Mars Assaults buying and selling playing cards had quietly developed a cult following by way of the ’80s, and within the early ’90s, Topps started licensing them for reprints and collectibles. British screenwriter Jonathan Gems, recognized for working with Tim Burton on unproduced scripts (Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian), pitched a Mars Assaults! movie to Burton within the early ’90s. Burton — already a fan of kitschy B-movie horror and sci-fi appeared . Gems’ pitch wasn’t to make a critical alien invasion movie à la Warfare of the Worlds or Independence Day (which was in improvement across the similar time). As a substitute, he proposed a chaotic, darkly comedic ensemble piece that paid homage to Fifties alien invasion motion pictures, with fashionable FX and a satirical twist. After listening to the pitch, Tim latched onto the concept. In any case, this was a man whose mind already appeared like a Martian in diagram kind. Warner Bros. greenlit the challenge, hoping Burton may ship one other Batman-sized hit. However there was only one small downside: no person may work out what tone this film was purported to have. Was it a satire? A comedy? A youngsters film the place a chihuahua will get fused to Sarah Jessica Parker’s physique? Burton’s reply? Sure.
Warner Bros., using excessive off Burton’s field workplace clout (Batman, Batman Returns, Edward Scissorhands), gave the challenge the go-ahead in 1993, even earlier than Ed Wooden started manufacturing. The movie could be Burton’s first main challenge beneath his personal manufacturing banner and a ardour challenge as well. However even Burton admitted: nobody fairly knew what tone the movie was purported to have. Early drafts of the script featured over 60 main characters, modeled after catastrophe motion pictures like The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Journey. The thought was to forged dozens of stars — and kill most of them in more and more absurd methods. Burton gave Gems and the opposite screenwriters (together with Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski at one level) a free hand to go wild. The script ballooned — at one level, over 60 main characters had been written in. The thought was to make it like a catastrophe film, a style that audiences understood: massive forged, massive destruction, massive penalties. Solely this time, the results had been Jack Nicholson taking part in two roles, each of whom died horribly.
The studio was banking on massive names, and it labored… when it comes to drawing consideration. Burton assembled an eye-popping forged: Jack Nicholson initially signed on to play the President, however Burton needed him to do double responsibility as two characters. Nicholson agreed, in the end taking part in President James Dale and Vegas hustler Artwork Land. In accordance with Burton, it was partly to save lots of on finances, partly as a result of it felt proper for a movie the place chaos dominated. Glenn Shut, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, Natalie Portman, Martin Brief, Danny DeVito, Pam Grier, and Tom Jones all signed on — many for the possibility to work with Burton or simply be a part of one thing uniquely bizarre. Jack Black, then a rising actor from TV and appearing in such movies as Neverending Story 3, Waterworld and The Cable Man, was forged as a patriotic, dimwitted soldier — a comic book reduction position that ends immediately Martian dying beam and is definitely one of many highlights of the film, albeit miserable as hell. Lisa Marie, Burton’s then-fiancée, performed the Martian Woman, a silent seductress in a skin-tight outfit and big wig. Her efficiency was carried out largely in mime and bodily appearing. Over a decade in the past, she was interviewed by “toofab” and admitted that wig was reportedly so tight and heavy that it left a everlasting scar on her scalp.
On the finish of the movie, and sure we’re leaping into spoiler territory, does anybody discover it humorous that Natalie Portman is appointed the chief of the free world after the martian assault? Was this what made George Lucas forged her as Queen Amadelia for The Star Wars Prequels? Who’s to say? Did we point out Tom Jones performs himself and finally ends up being one of many heroes of the movie? You’re saying we truly DID point out it? Nicely too dangerous it’s TOM FREAKING JONES!
The movie additionally labored when it comes to torching the finances. Burton initially needed to make use of stop-motion for the Martians — a loving homage to Ray Harryhausen — however Warner Bros. panicked once they noticed the associated fee estimates. CG was in the end the cheaper choice, even in 1996, so ILM stepped in and created these bug-eyed, skeletal little creeps we all know immediately. This choice saved money and time, however arguably robbed the movie of the charming, handmade vibe Burton was initially chasing. Nonetheless, the Martians’ actions — rubbery, jerky, and simply off sufficient — remained delightfully unsettling.
Principal pictures for the movie kicked off in August 1996 with most capturing carried out in California soundstages, and extra location filming in Nevada, Las Vegas, and New Mexico. The setting was meant to evoke an Atomic Age Americana vibe — retro diners, casinos, deserts, and suburbs straight out of Fifties pulp fiction. Manufacturing design by Wynn Thomas leaned closely into vivid colours, retro structure, and toy-like environments. The aim was for the movie to resemble a live-action cartoon — not simply in type, however in tone. Burton handled the film like a live-action cartoon — colourful units, surreal lighting, in addition to over-the-top performances. There was a surreal sense of freedom on set, but additionally disorganization. The movie’s script was being continuously rewritten, with complete subplots dropped mid-shoot. Characters had been rewritten or zapped totally. There have been so many superstar deaths that Burton made positive no actor knew for positive in the event that they’d make it to the tip. (Spoiler: most of them didn’t.)
Talking of excessive, Burton inspired the actors to push their performances to the sting. Nicholson, for instance, was so recreation he insisted on taking part in two characters: the doomed U.S. President and a sleazy Vegas developer. Burton agreed — partly as a result of it saved casting one other actor, and partly as a result of it simply felt proper for a film the place Martians impersonate hookers and disintegrate Boy Scouts. Martin Brief’s lecherous White Home press secretary bordered on Looney Tunes, whereas Sarah Jessica Parker’s efficiency was break up between her regular head and a chihuahua’s physique. It required separate inexperienced display periods and sophisticated visible compositing. Pierce Brosnan, after wrapping his first outing as James Bond in GoldenEye, performed a disembodied floating head and fell in love with Parker’s dog-lady hybrid. Danny DeVito, in a glorified cameo, needed to ham it up as a lot as doable, providing to ad-lib and improvise traces, too dangerous his character wasn’t in it for longer.
Enjoyable reality: the Martians’ screeching “ACK ACK ACK” dialogue? Utterly made up in submit. The script simply labeled it as “Martian gibberish” and Burton figured it out later. Generally chaos is the plan.
With ILM dealing with the Martians and Danny Elfman offering a theremin-laced rating, post-production became a race to mix Burton’s retro aptitude with fashionable (for the time) results. The CG Martians had been an uphill battle — animators struggled with their translucent skulls and bony palms — however the finish end result continues to be delightfully grotesque.
Elfman, recent off a short falling-out with Burton throughout The Nightmare Earlier than Christmas, returned to attain the movie, and he nailed it. The Mars Assaults! rating is pure atomic-age insanity, channeling B-movie horror and sci-fi with horns, clanging percussion, and many theremin weirdness. And sure — the film ends with yodeling. As a result of should you’re going to make a satire about Earth’s destruction, why not have Slim Whitman save the day?
Filming wrapped in late 1996, simply weeks earlier than the film’s December launch. Modifying was chaotic, with a number of sequences trimmed for runtime, and a few characters, as talked about earlier than, had been utterly faraway from the ultimate reduce.
Mars Assaults! launched in theaters on December 13, 1996. It’s greatest downside upon launch was who it opened in opposition to, slightly movie referred to as Jerry Maguire… ever heard of it? It additionally confronted one other downside, Independence Day, which had simply been launched over the summer season. It was THE blockbuster movie of the 12 months, and would go on to be the very best grossing movie of 1996. That film was patriotic, bombastic, and triumphant. Mars Assaults! was the other: gleefully nihilistic, chaotic, and bizarrely mean-spirited — and never everybody was in on the joke, or possibly they only didn’t like Jack Nicholson in twin roles?
Critics had been break up. Some praised the visuals and audacity, whereas others thought it was a large number with no emotional core. Audiences had been equally baffled. To this present day, it’s one of many few motion pictures my dad and mom nonetheless name “attrocious”. Regardless of a $100 million finances and all that star energy, Mars Assaults! solely made about $37 million domestically. It did higher internationally, but it surely wasn’t the hit Warner Bros. hoped for.
Regardless of all of that, Warner Bros. went all-in on merch. It was one of many weirdest, most fantastic items of merchandise and it completely captured the chaotic, grotesque vitality of the film itself. Produced by Trendmasters, the toy firm behind many cult-favorite 90s traces (Godzilla, Voltron, Independence Day), the figures had been a weird mix of cartoonish design and graphic alien carnage. The road featured extremely detailed Martian troopers with their signature uncovered brains, gleeful grins, and bulging eyes, usually packaged with human victims, disintegrator weapons, or horrific equipment like exploding heads. There was additionally a line of outsized Martian heads, speaking figures, and even autos, just like the Martian saucer, which yours really owned.
The toys had been vivid, gory, and unashamedly bizarre—every thing a child who in all probability shouldn’t have seen the film would’ve needed. However maybe as a result of the movie’s tone confused audiences and it wasn’t a large field workplace smash, the toys didn’t precisely fly off the cabinets. Over time, although, they’ve gained a cult following and have turn out to be cherished collector’s gadgets for followers who respect Mars Assaults‘s bonkers brand of sci-fi satire. It’s a toy line that’s lengthy overdue for a retro re-release—or perhaps a full-blown NECA-style revival, full with fashionable sculpt. There have been motion figures, comedian books, shirts and there’s even a online game releasing quickly. Trendmasters launched a full toyline — together with ray weapons and Martian leaders — which immediately fetch an honest value on eBay should you didn’t rip the packaging off as a child.
Again within the day, this was a real staple of the VHS and early DVD period. You’d simply discover it tucked between Males in Black and Independence Day at your native Blockbuster, virtually daring you to lease it. Its chaotic tone, all-star forged, and over-the-top alien mayhem made it a go-to film for teenagers who needed one thing just a bit offbeat.For a era, Mars Assaults! wasn’t only a film—it was a ceremony of passage by way of the splendidly bizarre corners of ‘90s home video. Today, Mars Attacks! stands as one of the weirdest studio films ever made. It’s messy. It’s imply. It’s visually overloaded. And it’s nonetheless utterly distinctive.Its mixture of schlock, satire, and honest B-movie homage influenced filmmakers who needed to interrupt from blockbuster formulation. Edgar Wright, James Gunn — even reveals like Rick and Morty owe slightly debt to Mars Assaults!’s chaotic DNA. And Burton himself has referred to as it one in all his most “free” experiences as a director, even when the critics didn’t get it on the time. Plus, let’s be sincere: any film the place Pierce Brosnan’s head will get hooked up to a chihuahua deserves a rattling reappraisal.
So what occurred to Mars Assaults!? Nicely, it crashed and burned, then climbed out of the wreckage to turn out to be a VHS-era staple, a Sizzling Matter icon, and a fan favourite for weirdos in every single place. It didn’t save the world. It didn’t win any awards. However like a Martian in a large robotic go well with, it stomped into popular culture and refused to depart. And should you hear intently… you’ll be able to nonetheless hear the faint echo of “ACK ACK ACK” each time a studio greenlights a “bold new reboot.”
A few the earlier episodes of the present could be seen beneath. To see extra, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe when you’re there!
