Ray Bradbury, 90, Is Still Chasing Martians

startribune.com:

The author of "Fahrenheit 451" and "The Martian Chronicles" is trying to develop film versions of both books. He's also working on a collection of short fiction to be published next year.

Read the whole story: startribune.com

Comments

[thepointoforigin]

09:50 PM on 09/09/2010

his politics aside, "Fahrenheit 451" was one of my favorite books, a timeless message that Bradbury himself, may have lost in his 90 years.

[LMPE]

01:08 AM on 09/09/2010

As a number of posters have already noted, Francois Truffaut filmed "Fahrenheit 451" in 1966 starring Oskar Werner and Julie Christie. It was FT's only English-language movie. Really good one.

[Charity]

02:46 PM on 09/08/2010

François Truffaut directed "Fahrenheit 451" (1966) which starred Julie Christie and Oskar Werner. It was a terrific film. Everyone should rent it or download it. I saw it in the theater when it was first released. Why do a remake? Re-release the original.

[TakeSake]

11:40 PM on 09/08/2010

Yes! I remember seeing that one in school. A lot of kids laughed at the style of it - but I always liked that one.

[mjeffn]

01:58 PM on 09/08/2010

I am as surprised to hear the R. Bradbury surrenders freely to faux news as I was when I first heard Christopher Hitchen's support Bush's neocon world view.

[marianproletarian]

01:47 PM on 09/08/2010

There is already a Farenheit 451 movie.

[Jerome Morrow]

12:22 PM on 09/08/2010

Ray Bradbury is tha man. Great, great author. Love him and what he's done in the sci-fi world. And he still writes every day. Amazing.

[Sir Guy Grand]

10:58 AM on 09/08/2010

I could see re-making "The Martian Chronicles." It's really had justice done to it on film. The TV mini-series with Rock Hudson was really sad.

[Sir Guy Grand]

11:00 AM on 09/08/2010

Meant to say "It's really NEVER had justice done to it on film."

[marianproletarian]

01:49 PM on 09/08/2010

Yeah, that was bad.

[Sir Guy Grand]

10:47 AM on 09/08/2010

I don't think one could do better than François Truffaut's 1966 film version of Fahrenheit 451 with Oskar Werner and Julie Cristie. It's a classic, Ray. Please leave it there.

[Knowbetter]

11:18 AM on 09/08/2010

Agreed. I have a copy on DVD at home.

[marianproletarian]

01:49 PM on 09/08/2010

Yes.

[senseandnonsense]

10:15 AM on 09/08/2010

I was hooked first on The Illustrated Man. Forty years later, I can now see the illustrated man on any street corner of America. But the tattoos don't move... or predict future events...

[Sir Guy Grand]

10:50 AM on 09/08/2010

Great post.

[DSOTM]

09:18 AM on 09/08/2010

If Hollywood is going to make a remake, let them redo Soylent Green and The Man Who Fell To Earth.

[Sir Guy Grand]

10:55 AM on 09/08/2010

But TMWFTE is so deliciously bad! (sorry David, but you know it's true). I especially loved the VW mini-buses or whatever they were, dressed up to look like exotic alien vehicles. They couldn't remake it, because Bowie IS the Man Who Fell To Earth, and he's starting to look his age just a bit.

[DSOTM]

11:01 AM on 09/08/2010

Well, wish me luck, cause I've been working on a new screenplay to TMWFTE with a new twist.

I am hoping to get Duncan Jones to direct it, Davids son.

[MISTERUNCONVENTIONAL]

09:07 AM on 09/08/2010

The firemen are rarely necessary. The public stopped reading of its own accord.

[Sir Guy Grand]

11:02 AM on 09/08/2010

Good point. Out with a whimper.

[Jerome Morrow]

12:26 PM on 09/08/2010

The public stopped reading 'books.' I would venture to say that the rise of the internet probably has people reading more than ever.

Now the quality of what they read is in doubt, but reading isn't dying.

Also, on a related note, e-books didn't kill the novel, but it just might save it. I have an amazon kindle and read more now that I ever did.

I get your point, I just wanted to make a wee counter-argument that it may not be as bad as you think...

[MISTERUNCONVENTIONAL]

12:34 PM on 09/08/2010

And on the flip side we had a vice presidential candidate who couldn't name any newspapers or magazines she read.

How many literate people would VOTE for a clearly non-literate one.

It is written: "Those who do not CHOOSE to read are no better off than those who cannot."

[imfedup]

08:45 AM on 09/08/2010

He's one of my favorites. I met him in the 70's/early 80's, and he signed my copy of Dandelion Wine. I need to find that book . . .

[Jerome Morrow]

12:28 PM on 09/08/2010

I envy you. I would love to meet him. Sorry to say that I have been waiting for the inevitable news anytime now. The guy is 90 after all. I hope he lives to at least 100 tho...

All the great pulp guys are a dying breed...

[imfedup]

01:57 PM on 09/08/2010

Dandelion Wine is incredible, if you haven't read it. So is Something Wicked This Way Comes.

[Sir Guy Grand]

12:40 AM on 09/09/2010

We're fortunate here in southern Calif., because he lives out here and gives lots of talks and book-signings all the time. But, if you really want to meet him, go to the Comic-Con in San Diego in July. He goes every year. This year, I had just gotten done asking a bookseller at Comic-Con if he knew if Ray Bradbury had been around, when I turned to go and almost tripped over Ray B's wheelchair.

[dmsdzinr]

07:58 AM on 09/08/2010

Ray Bradbury is a National Treasure! It saddens me that he will be gone from this earth, in the not too distant future.

[Sir Guy Grand]

11:02 AM on 09/08/2010

Unless......

[Jerome Morrow]

12:29 PM on 09/08/2010

I know. Everytime I see his name in the news, I thing the worst. I hope he holds out though and just decides not to go...:)

[Tom Sutpen]

11:13 PM on 09/07/2010

Problem with adapting 'The Martian Chronicles' is that it's a book of loosely connected short stories. Carving a single narrative out of it necessitates losing a great deal of its cumulative impact; and as the lumpy mass of story that was the late-70s Television adaptation demonstrated, integrating it all is damn near impossible.

Truffaut's 1966 film of 'Farenheit 451' is brilliant (easily his most underrated film). A remake would be pointless.

[senseandnonsense]

10:12 AM on 09/08/2010

I agree with you about the Truffaut film. Why not just re-release it to theaters and see what happens?

[Tom Sutpen]

10:23 AM on 09/08/2010

Well, it's been on DVD for quite a while now; and if Universal did re-release it, it would only be booked in a handful of theaters.

[Knute]

12:46 PM on 09/08/2010

Coming soon to an IMAX near you:

FARENHEIT 451: 3-D!!!!!

[jd mumma]

08:37 PM on 09/07/2010

Compos Mentis and Caveat Emptor!

I a world where assumptions and biases are the norm... Some falsities and memes are very difficult to dissolve!
If he is wanting to truly WAKE UP the sheeple rather than just entertain, then he might want to correct the temperature first 451 Celcius

Come on... Tell the truth...
Did you ever check if Farenheit 451 was correct for book burning or just not question it because it was on the cover of a well sold book?
When you did check the facts was it from people who actually checked the facts of just regurgitated the myth? ;-)

[Aelfgifu]

09:16 AM on 09/08/2010

Yes. And it's true. My guess is that you've never bothered to check.

But still, even if it weren't true, then it wouldn't take any meaning away from the book.

[Sir Guy Grand]

11:20 AM on 09/08/2010

Never got beyond the cover?