Mars Attacks Was Originally About A Dinosaur Attack (But The Lost World Changed That)

In 1962, artists Wally Wood and Norman Saunders painted out a series of horrifically violent trading cards featuring large-brained alien critters attacking Earth, gleefully killing the U.S. soldiers, severing people's heads, and using their advanced technology to grow Earth's insects into murderous monsters. Called "Mars Attacks!," the trading cards were numbered and, when arranged properly, told a linear story of the whole Martian invasion, and how Mars, nearing an explosive cataclysm, needed to invade Earth for purposes of recolonization. The Martian invasion was followed a successful Earth counterstrike back on Mars, wherein a human force blew up the Martian cities and killed the disgusting little monsters once and for all. Then Mars explodes.

The "Mars Attacks!" cards were most certainly inappropriate for children, so of course kids wanted them right away. Because of the violent images on the cards, many concerned parents groups successfully sued to have them removed from comic book stores. The remaining "Mars Attacks!" cards are now highly sought after. Fans of cult pop phenomenon know Topps' "Mars Attacks!" well. Wood was previously an artist for EC Comics and for MAD Magazine, and Saunders painted covers for magazines like "Marvel Science Stories."

Throughout the 1980s, interest in "Mars Attacks!" grew, and the original cards were eventually expanded and reissued. By 1996, interest was high enough to warrant a feature film adaptation, directed by Tim Burton. The film was just as impish as the cards, although the horrible violence was made PG-13-appropriate. Sarah Jessica Parker, however, still had her head grafted onto the body of a chihuahua.

In 1988, however, Topps — in a fit of retro nostalgia — launched a similar series called "Dinosaurs Attack!" "Mars" screenwriter Jonathan Gems discovered both series at the same time. He nearly wrote a script for the latter.

In a 2021 oral history of "Mars Attacks!" published by Inverse, Jonathan Gems recalled a time when he and Tim Burton were working on a separate project. It was rounding the end of August, near Burton's birthday, and Gems trekked to a local comic book shop to find a gift. It was here he discovered the old Topps trading cars in question. Struck by the images, Gems procured them. To him, both Martians and dinosaurs were intriguing. He explained: 

"I was working with Tim Burton on something else. It was his birthday, and I was looking for a birthday present. It was difficult to find anything for him because he had everything. I was in a kind of gift store, and on the counter, I saw a complete collection of two sets of cards. These were cards that were like baseball cards. There were two sets, one called 'Dinosaurs Attack!' and another called 'Mars Attacks!' They had these fantastic little oil paintings of these atrocities." 

Gems admitted, however, that the dinosaurs were more appealing to write about. This was the mid-1990s, "Jurassic Park" was only a few years old, and a slew of imitators had entered the film marketplace ("Carnosaur" anyone?). It seemed like a campy sendup of the phenomenon was in order. Sadly, Gems learned that another high-profile dinosaur movie was already in production and had to pivot:

"Originally, it was going to be 'Dinosaurs Attack!' But then we found out Steven Spielberg was doing a sequel to 'Jurassic Park,' and they were going to have dinosaurs attacking Los Angeles. Tim said, 'Let's do it as a disaster movie.' Tim and I actually watched 'Towering Inferno' probably about a year before, and we were stoned. And if you watch 'Towering Inferno' when you're stoned, it's hilariously funny."

Incidentally, it was San Diego that the Tyrannosaurus Rex rampaged through in Steven Spielberg's "The Lost World: Jurassic Park," and not Los Angeles, but the notion is understood. 

Watching the final film version of "Mars Attacks!," one can see the "'Towering Inferno,' but on weed" mentality at play. Much of Tim Burton's film is devoted to Martians causing mayhem and destroying notable landmarks. The human characters are wasted at random intervals, and Burton's sympathies seem to lie with the attacking aliens. Humans, the film argues, are incredibly pathetic, and will be unprepared for a group of what are essentially really violent 11-year-olds.

A spoof of "Jurassic Park" was out, but "Mars Attacks!" ended up being a spiritual spoof of "Independence Day," which was released only five months before. Only instead of an earnest disaster movie about a united humanity, Jonathan Gems was keen to retain the shocking violence and impish, adolescent cynicism of the original trading cards. Refusing to kowtow to studio demands, Gems said, got him in a little hot water. Luckily, the violence remained:

"I got in trouble with the studio because they would ask me to do changes, and sometimes I wouldn't do them. They told me you can't have burning cows at the beginning of the film. I thought it was a good opening. Every time I did a new draft, they'd say, 'The cows are still in. We can't have burning cows.' I said, 'It's not real cows that are burning.' But they said, 'No, you cannot do that — animal cruelty.'"

Not only was he in hot water, but Jonathan Gems was ultimately fired from the project over the burning cows sequence. "Mars Attacks!" begins with a pair of farmers talking about a smell in the air. It smells like barbecue, one of them notes. Then a herd of cattle — set on fire — charges past. The culprit, a Martian flying saucer, departs the scene. Although that scene was taken straight from the trading cards, executives at Warner objected. Despite multiple re-writes, Gems wouldn't let it go:

"I think it was the 11th draft, they said, "If the burning cows are in the next draft, you will be fired." So I did try but I couldn't think of anything better, so I did deliver the new script with the burning cows. And they fired me." 

Fired or not, Tim Burton filmed the scene and it opens the movie as Gems intended. He was, however, the only credited screenwriter on "Mars Attacks!," which leads one to speculate that the finished film was mostly his voice. Burton, meanwhile, still feels that "Mars Attacks!" was fun to make, and was happy to include as many images from the trading cards as possible. The director was also peacefully resigned to the usual studio interference. "It's always funny when studios fight to kick stuff out. That is basically why you're doing it," he noted.

Burton, it seems, was the impish Martian in this case. His finished film is an underrated piece of the director's canon, and is definitely worth a watch when you're in a destructive kind of mood.