While Ray Bradbury is revered as one of the greatest living sci-fi authors, his works have never had too much luck on the silver screen. While he’s written quite a few screenplays and teleplays, and many of his stories have been adapted, there are precious few really good movies on his resume, and even fewer that live up to their inspiration.
Now it seems Hollywood is gonna have another go at turning one of his most famous books into a movie, with the LA Times reporting that producer John Davis has optioned the rights to Bradbury’s 1950 story collection, The Martian Chronicles. It wouldn’t be the first time the tome has been adapted, but previous attempts have been stymied by a lack of budget and the fact that the technology at the time had trouble turning Bradbury’s ideas into a visual reality.
Now we’re in a post-Avatar worl, that’s not a problem, and everyone wants to try and find a property that can ape the success of Cameron’s film. Bradbury’s book certainly shares themes with Avatar, with its series of tales following humanities attempts to colonise Mars after a terrible disaster on Earth, and the inevitable clashes with the native Martians that follow.
However, while Davis now has a window to try and get a Martian Chronicles movie made, it’s possible studios will want to wait and see how well Disney’s John Carter Of Mars does before they greenlight any other Martian set tales. That film arrives summer 2012, so Davis may have a while to wait until he can see if his movie can go forward.