'John Carter' director Andrew Stanton says the Edgar Rice Burroughs books that his movie is based on, had as much influence on the genre at The Beatles had on the music industry. The 'Finding Nemo' filmmaker made the comments at a recent UK press conference to publicize Disney's forthcoming Sci-Fi epic.

Stanton told reporters, "To me it's like the influence that The Beatles' music did. It just made great artists do things that was of a similar inspiration but they gave it their own thumbprint, their own DNA". The director continued, "And that's what great art does - it inspires other artists to do great art, and that's what it should do. There's nothing that you like in this world that wasn't influenced by a bunch of key things; nothing came completely clean out of a vacuum". 'John Carter' is based on Burrough's 'Barsoom' series of books, which spanned eleven pulp fiction titles. His fiction had a huge inspiration on contemporary sci-fi writers such as Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke. More recently, Avatar creator James Cameron has also spoken of how Burroughs' books inspired his multi-billion dollar grossing movie.

John Carter, which hits cinemas in the U.S. on Friday (March 9, 2012), follows a Civil War veteran who is transplanted to Mars and who discovers that the planet is inhabited by 12 foot tall barbarians. The movie stars newcomer Taylor Kitsch in the lead role, with support from Samantha Morton and WILLEM DAFOE.