Pixar’s first foray into live-action film (unless you count brief snippets in Wall-E), an adaptation of Edgar Rice Burrough’s John Carter of Mars by director Andrew Stanton, has gained three fantastic cast members: Mark Strong (Syriana, Kick-Ass), James Purefoy (Resident Evil, Solomon Kane) and Thomas Haden Church (Spiderman 3, Sideways).

Church will play “Tal Hajus, an ambitious and vicious Thark warrior who is biding his time to be a ruler,” while Strong will play “Matai Shang, the ruler of the Thems with godlike status.” Purefoy plays Kantos Kan, a captain of a huge warship called the Xavarian.

This is all Greek to me, but it sounds freaking fantastic. They’re joining the already cast Taylor Kitsch (Wolverine) as John Carter, a Civil War veteran displaced to the landscape of Mars. Filming will begin early next year. All the pieces are in place for this film to be another grand slam from Stanton and Disney.

Andrew Stanton, the phenomenally talented director behind Wall-E and Finding Nemo, is pushing Pixar productions into unmapped territory — his adaption of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars story will be a conglomerate of computer generated imagery and live action material in what’s expected to be the first entry in a trilogy of films.

The film just gained actors Samantha Morton (Minority Report), Dominic West (300, Punisher: War Zone) and Polly Walker (Patriot Games). These new guys are being added to an already-sweet roster of performers: Willem Dafoe, playing Tars Tarkas, villainous Martian warrior, Lynn Collins and Taylor Kitsch. Kitsch, whom the world knows well from Friday Night Lights and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, is playing the titular Civil War veteran thrust into an adventure on the planet Mars.

I’m thinking this one will be a knockout for Pixar. With a script by Stanton, Michael Chabon and Mark Andrews, we’re in talented hands. The shoot begins in November (with the barren state of Utah doubling for the Martian landscape), and the release date is scheduled for 2011.

It can’t come quickly enough.