Big It Came From Outer Space fan. I just got a DVD copy of Fahrenheit 451, so I must give that a spin soon. A sad day: one of the giants.
I liked the Ray Bradbury Theatre version of. A Miracle of Rare Device and The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl and the baby one and the one where the children have Africa in their room.
My favorite Bradbury (book and film) is Fahrenheit 451.
I haven’t cared for any of the adaptations. He’s a brilliant writer though.
Tommy did you like there will come soft rains?? I thought that was good and it’s probably my favorite Bradbury story.
I’ll second THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS — a remarkable little story. Was there a film of it? I remember it being mentioned as one of the few genuinely plotless stories in American literature.
I’ve never liked the film of SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES — a remarkably flat-footed adaptation of a genuinely magical novel. The film just never takes off in any way.
Oh yeah, that one is excellent. But aside from that, the major ones like Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked weren’t very fulfilling for me.
Does the original series run of Twilight Zone count? Almost 80% of the episodes had some Bradbury influence on them, if not the entire episode, at least bits and pieces.
I’m not really a fan of any adaptations i’ve seen, but i haven’t seen very many; I much prefer to read him.
Illustrated Man was another not too great one.
I wasn’t thinking about Twilight Zone, which I absolutely adore. That was my childhood.
Fahrenheit 451 is the only novel I’ve read twice. Not because I thought it was the best thing ever, but because I had already gone through it once when a book club I was in decided to read it.
Bradbury’s one of those who seems like it would be a slam dunk for adaptation, but his work hasn’t actually fared that well in adaptation. His adaptation of his own story “I Sing the Body Electric” is generally considered one of the worse “Twilight Zone” episodes.
It’s not exactly a masterpiece, but I kinda like Stuart Gordon’s film (from Bradbury’s screenplay adaptation of his own short story) of The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit.
The Picasso Summer is another interesting oddity. Here’s an animated sequence that’s key to the film:
Truffaut’s Fahrenheit 451.
He did some pretty good episodes for the Alfred Hitchcock show.
The Martian Chronicles is pretty dated, but worth a look. It would have a made for better TV had one of the cable channels gotten hold of it instead of the guy who did Logan’s Run.
It is odd that other than Fahrenheit 451, none of his adaptations really had a huge budget. I still would have loved to have seen Frank Darabont’s take on Fahrenheit 451 but it remained stuck in development hell.
My thoughts on Bradbury, his influence on my life and my favorite of the film adaptations of his work…
Yeah, there has been no truly great adaptation of his work, though I thought Farenheit 451 and The Illustrated Man were at least semi-successful in capturing that sort of otherworldly vibe that Bradbury has in writing.
Also, not an adaptation of his work (obviously), but I have always loved John Huston’s Moby Dick, which Bradbury did the screenplay for, even though Huston evidently didn’t give him credit for it.
The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit is my favourite film adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s work. An unsung classic in my view. Bradbury himself was very happy with the film but sadly it got a limited release.
I’m also a big fan of It Came from Outer Space, There Will Come Soft Rains and The Halloween Tree.
His adaptation of Moby Dick was excellent. I still think that film is very underrated.
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. Not a great film of course, but it’s Bradbury and Harryhausen – 2 of my all-time favorite geek-out people. Put the 2 Rays together and for me it’s magic!
He is maybe the only author that taught me
one could be profound and G rated, profound and moral even!
Favorite Novel: Something Wicked This Way Comes
Favorite Short Stories: The Exiles, There Will Come Soft Rains, The Long Rain, The Next In Line, Uncle Einar, The Crowd, A Sound of Thunder, The Fog Horn, The Scythe, The Veldt
I listened to a Q&A with Bradbury and apparently he was friends with Rod Serling, but before Twilight Zone. He said Serling didn’t know how to write so Bradbury was going to teach him by giving him books. Books by the friends of Bradbury along with some of his own. Serling read the books and writing episodes of the Twilight Zone often based on those works and never seemed to credit Bradbury for the majority of it.
interesting Tommy. Makes me wanna dig deeper into my fav episodes of Twilight Zone and check out the source material they are based on.
So perhaps the success of Twilight Zone really dig bring them apart.
It’s very strange. It’s an interesting Q&A. Look up the Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith podcast in iTunes or whatever. I think this was just last year so you know he’s old and kind of repeats himself but he’s very lively.
peter smith
Bradbury passed away this morning at the age of 91. There has been many fine films based on his work but also a ton of television productions like “Ray Bradbury Theater”. My favorite film adaptation is “Something Wicked This Way Comes”. The film was much better when I first saw it on BETA but it still has atmosphere to burn. TV wise I must admit that “Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms in your Cellar!” from Bradbury Theater nailed the dark comedy/dread.