Bradbury's Martian Chronicles to Hit the Big Screen

Ray Bradbury's classic The Martian Chronicles, an anthology of short stories regarding the colonization of Mars, may be headed for the big screen under the FOX banner. The L.A. Times reports that producer, John Davis (Predators; I, Robot), bought the rights to the 1950 classic.

The Martian Chronicles is a collection of loosely-connected stories about Man's fleeing an atomically destroyed Earth to Mars. Many of the tales of the Red Planet's colonization, told from both humans' and martians' point-of-view, occur in 2000 and 2005. A TV adaptation, starring Rock Hudson and Bernadette Peters, was made in the 1980s.

Many are saying FOX is looking to give The Martian Chronicles the Avatar treatment, in hopes that it will prove a cash cow. There is certainly enough source material for a franchise, though I have a feeling The Martian Chronicles might be better-served as a TV series. Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and The Illustrated Man are also in development.

Amongst his many accomplishments, Ray Bradbury wrote the single, best first line in literary history.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010