Disney Pictures is in final negotiations to acquire the film rights to "Tarzan" author Edgar Rice Burroughs' "John Carter of Mars" novel series.

The eleven-volume series began with the story titled "A Princess of Mars," published serially in 1912 and in novel form in 1916.

The series told of a Civil War officer named John Carter who is transported to Mars and finds himself a captive of the savage green men from Thark.

Carter eventually rises to become a great warrior, marries a princess, raises a family and embarks on numerous adventures.

The project has had a long-gestating history with Disney and Jeffrey Katzenberg holding the rights to the series through most of the 1990s with plans for an animated feature.

In the last decade have come numerous plans for a live-action version with the likes of John McTiernan, Robert Rodriguez, Kerry Conrad and Jon Favreau being attached at one point or another.

Paramount Pictures picked up the rights to the series in 2002 but let them go last year. Disney began talks for them last month.

The question now is will this be done as either a Pixar CG animated movie, a traditionally animated Disney movie, or a live-action Touchstone Pictures action franchise.