Paramount Pictures sees green in the red planet, inking a deal to acquire rights to an 11-volume science fiction adventure series written decades ago by Edgar Rice Burroughs, author of the original “Tarzan” legend, Variety reports. Under the deal, Paramount has agreed to option the “John Carter of Mars” serial for a $300,000 upfront fee and to pay a $2 million sum if the studio brings the work to production. Paramount-based producers Jim Jacks and Sean Daniels’ Alphaville Prods. plans to turn the first book into a movie. Although Burroughs is best known for having penned the iconic “Tarzan of the Apes,” the English writer’s first book was “A Princess of Mars.” Written in 1912, it was serialized in All-Story magazine under his nom de plume, Normal Bean.