Althoughfew of Ray Bradbury’s screenplays were ever produced, the author was soprofoundly shaped by moviegoing that his stories were almost screenplays, hisspare but evocative writing suggested the storyboarding of a careful director.“Bradbury’s imagination was essentially scenic,” David Seed writes in hiscogent examination of the writer, Ray Bradbury (published by University ofIllinois Press); “the influence of film on his work can’t be overstated.”
Aprofessor of American literature at Liverpool University, Seed measures thelength and breadth of Bradbury’s vocation as a writer—which carried on into the21st century and encompassed opera, radio drama, musicals, essaysand a cable TV series (1985-1992). However, the stories for which Bradbury ismost remembered—The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951) andFahrenheit 451 (1953)—appeared one after the other in a brilliant flash ofcreativity. Although always engaged in projects, Bradbury lived in the shadowof previous accomplishments. The remaining half-century of his work resembles along epilogue.
Understandably,Seed devotes much of his critical biography to the fertile post-World War IIyears when Bradbury found his unmistakable voice as a writer. That voice spokethe language of film. “I’m a child of the cinema,” Seed quotes Bradbury. “I tryto enable the reader to see.”
Bradburyplayed little role in the most important film adaptation of his work,Fahrenheit 451. Director Francois Truffaut sent the author his screenplay andinvited him to the production, but as Seed notes, Bradbury preferred to stayout of the way and suggested only that Bernard Herrmann compose the score. WithBradbury’s hearty approval, Truffaut edited several themes from the story, especiallythe threat of nuclear war. “You don’t need it,” the author told the director.“It’s an extra threat. But the real threat is ignorance—the lack of education.”
Manyin Hollywood have toyed with new versions of Fahrenheit 451, including Bradburyhimself, but while Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks expressed interest in the projectat one time or another, the remake never materialized.
Bradbury’sother important accomplishments came early, on the heels of his success as anauthor: the story that launched the 1950s monster movie cycle, The Beast from20,000 Fathoms (1953); and It Came From Outer Space (1953), the movie thatinspired a boy called Steven Spielberg, who later cited it when discussing CloseEncounters of the Third Kind.
