Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles to be filmed

27 June 2010

John Howell

For those of you unfamiliar with the works of the great Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles is his 1950 science fiction short story collection (stories so closely-related you could describe them as a novel) that chronicles the colonisation of Mars by humans fleeing an Earth on the brink of collapse. On Mars, the colonists must face the inscrutable and dangerous Martians. According to Total Film, 20th Century Fox producer John Davis has picked up the rights to The Martian Chronicles and has been given a short period of time to turn the short story collection into a movie. Davis is one of the producers behind the upcoming Predators film.

The Martian Chronicles has been filmed once before. Back in 1980, NBC broadcast a television miniseries that starred Rock Hudson, Darren McGavin, Bernadette Peters, Roddy McDowall and Barry Morse. There were three episodes with a running time of over 4 hours. I have fond memories of the series, but Ray Bradbury has been quoted saying that he found the series "just boring". I've ordered the DVD on Amazon, so I guess I'll soon find out if my childhood memories have misled me once again.

When I read about Hollywood rights acquisitions of famous science fiction novels, I can't help thinking about the hundreds of other classic science fiction books yet to be adapted. What about Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars books? They have a Mars exploration theme, just like The Martian Chronicles, and would make a fantastic series of films. I also keep hoping someone will take on Philip K. Dick's wonderful The Man in the High Castle. Imagine what could be done on film with Dick's parallel universe where the the Nazi's occupy the US? Or what about Dan Simmons' Hyperion books? Space opera at its best.  There was talk of a Hyperion movie ages ago, but nothing came of it. Then there's Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land and Larry Niven's award winning Ringworld  (and all his other books exploring Known Space). Why would anyone in Hollywood today be considering remaking anything when there is so much out there, so many promising story possibilities waiting to be transformed for the big screen? Producers please take note!

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