Ray Bradbury is one of the most influential modern day writers, with his wondrous imagination influencing numerous sci-fi and genre stories.
Not to mention it’s great that at 91, Bradbury is still going strong, much like Richard Matheson whose books remain in great demand.
Bradbury has lived long enough to see one of his greatest works, Fahrenheit 451, become an e-book.
451 – in print since 1953 – has sold over 10 million copies. Along with the e-book, there will be new paperback editions of 451, as well as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man, coming next year.
As the L.A. Times reports, “The irony of releasing an e-book edition of a novel built around the death of print books was not lost on Bradbury, which is why he [initially] resisted the e-book idea.” (Indeed, Bradbury said several years ago that e-books “smell like burned fuel.”)
This summer, reports also surfaced that Bradbury’s novel Dandelion Wine is being developed into a movie, and the news broke right before Bradbury hit 91 on August 22.
Producer Mike Medavoy, who was an executive at United Artists and Orion, and who shepherded Silence of the Lambs, among many other films, set the project up at his company Phoenix Pictures.
Bradbury told Deadline that Dandelion Wine being adapted into a film was the best birthday gift he could ask for.
”Today, I have been reborn! ‘Dandelion Wine’ is my most deeply personal work and bring back memories of sheer joy as well as terror. This is the story of me as a young boy and the magic of an unforgettable summer which still holds a mystical power over me.”
Note: Dandelion Wine (Vino iz oduvanchikov) was adapted for a Russian TV film back in 1987 by Innokenti Smoktunovsky. The novel was also produced as a full-cast radio play by the Colonial Radio Theatre on the Air in 2006, with the cast featuring Jerry Robbins as Bill Forrester, William Humphrey as Douglas Spaulding, Rik Pierce as Grandpa, and James McLean as Tom Spaulding.
