The New Ray Bradbury Review, Number 1 (2008)

William F. Touponce

• Publisher: The Kent State University Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781612775920
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism in Science Fiction
• Index: Literature

An annual dedicated to the life and writings of one of America's most prolific and popular authors

Like its pioneering predecessor, the one-volume review published in 1952 by William F. Nolan, The New Ray Bradbury Review contains articles and reviews about Bradbury but has a much broader scope, including a thematic focus for each issue. Since Nolan composed his slim volume at the beginning of Bradbury's career, Bradbury has birthed hundreds of stories and half a dozen novels, making him one of this country's most anthologized authors. While his effect on the genres of fantasy, horror, and science fiction is still being assessed (See Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction, Kent State University Press, 2004), there is no doubt of his impact, and to judge from the testimony of his readers, many of them now professional writers themselves, it is clear that he has affected the lives of five generations of young readers.

The New Ray Bradbury Review is designed primarily to study the impact of Ray Bradbury's writings on American culture. It is the central publication of The Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, a newly established archive of Bradbury's writings located at Indiana University. This first number is devoted to the question of adaptation, or Bradbury's translation into other media. Bradbury often speaks of himself as a "hybrid" writer, someone whose authorship took shape in a culture dominated by mass media and the decline of book reading. What has been the effect of this "reign of adaptations" on Bradbury's authorship? How has Bradbury in turn been served by the translation of his work into other media—radio, film, television—both by himself and by others? A group of international scholars explores these questions in terms of the media they work in and study. This first number also features two of Bradbury's unpublished screenplays and an extensive bibliography of Bradbury's adaptation into other media.

Fans and scholars will welcome The New Ray Bradbury Review, as it will add to the understanding of the life and work of this recently honored author, who received both a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize.

Interested in learning more about this and future projects with the The Center for Ray Bradbury Studies? Click here listen to William F. Touponce address these issues.

Ray Bradbury: Adaptations in Other Media

Compiled by Jon Eller

Bradbury’s extensive adaptation of his own work to other genres and media is cataloged here, followed by a shorter but no less significant listing of Bradbury’s adaptations of the work of other authors. The second half of the catalog consists of an even more extensive listing of Bradbury work adapted by other writers. Within each of these major categories of authorship, adaptations are separated into parallel categories of genre and media: film, graphic adaptation, radio drama, short stories, novels, stage drama (including musicals and opera), and television. Audio recordings of Bradbury’s work represent a variant form of presentation rather than adaptation, and are not included here.

Most of Bradbury’s adaptations involve transforming his own stories into scripts for stage, film, television and, from time to time, radio. But one should never assume that all of Bradbury’s multimedia work can be classified as adaptation. Original plays, such as A Clear View of an Irish Mist, have no antecedent in Bradbury’s stories and are therefore considered new works rather than adaptations. A few stories are actually adaptations of earlier dramatic forms and are listed here. Bradbury’s 1972 novel The Halloween Tree is an adaptation of an unproduced 1967–68 animated feature screenplay for MGM, and will be found in this listing even though the public first encountered this perennial October favorite only in the novel form. In all such cases, the original source of Bradbury’s adaptation is noted within the entry. In developing this bibliography, I have stretched the definition of adaptation in only one case: Bradbury’s unproduced animated screenplay Nemo! (1983–84) represents an original story line, but since Bradbury chose to work within the basic premises of the original Winsor McKay comic strip tradition, this screenplay (and the actual Japanese production adapted from it) appear in the listing.

In general, then, an original work by Bradbury (regardless of genre or media) will not have its own entry here, but any original work that is the basis for an adaptation by Bradbury or by other authors will be identified within the entry for that adaptation. Entries appear in chronological order within each genre or media category; stage productions are ordered by date of first performance except in cases (such as Bradbury’s early Irish stories-into-plays) where publication precedes performance. Multiple adaptations of a single Bradbury title are not uncommon in the radio, film, and television categories; within each of these genre categories, such multiple versions will be grouped together in a single entry anchored to the earliest adaptation. A master title index concludes this bibliography. This index summarizes the full spectrum of adaptations across all genres and media for each Bradbury title.

Adaptations that have been published are so indicated; unpublished adaptations are annotated to indicate if manuscripts (usually typescripts) or production-circulation printings exist. Broadcast or release dates are listed for radio, television, or film adaptations, and opening performance dates are listed for stage performances. All known published or printed adaptations are included; however, since there have been thousands of amateur, educational, and professional performances of Bradbury’s dramatic adaptations, only the major stage productions are included for the entries in this category.

In compiling this catalog for the first volume of The New Ray Bradbury Review, I have relied heavily on the Albright Collection and the archival photocopies of this collection that are deposited in the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, Indiana University School of Liberal Arts. October’s Friend, the unpublished catalog of the Albright Collection prepared by Jim Welsh and Donn Albright, has been an immense help in designing this catalog and verifying the entries. William F. Nolan’s Ray Bradbury Companion (Detroit: Gale, 1975), for decades the primary published source of information on Bradbury’s original and adapted works, was another foundational source for my research. I’m also greatly indebted to Phil Nichols of the University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom, for his pioneering work in Bradbury media studies and his extensive on-line listings of Bradbury’s media work.

I was also able to draw on my own listings of Bradbury’s published stories and prose fiction in Eller and Touponce, Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction (Kent State UP, 2004). All reprintings and adaptations of the original stories are consolidated in The Life of Fiction’s backmatter under “Bradbury’s Fiction, Year-by-Year.” Bibliographical identifiers from that work appear in the title index of the present catalog to provide a cross-reference for further research.

I. Bradbury’s Adaptations

A. Film

Chrysalis. Unproduced screen treatment outline (9-page typescript, dated August 29, 1952). Prepared on the side while Bradbury was working at Universal-International on his unrelated original screenplay, It Came From Outer Space (released 1953). Adapted from his original story (1946). The Albright Collection; research photocopy on deposit at the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, Indiana University.

Merry-Go-Round. Unproduced (and unlocated) 50-page screen treatment developed for Sam Goldwyn, Jr., December 1954. Adapted and expanded from “The Black Ferris” (1948) as adapted for television by Mel Dinelli as “Merry-Go-Round” (1954, qv). Evolved into the unproduced screenplay The Dark Carnival (1956) and Something Wicked This Way Comes (novel, 1962; film, 1983).

The Illustrated Man. Unproduced screenplay, 1958. Adapted from selected stories included in The Illustrated Man (1951). The Albright Collection; research photocopy on deposit at the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, Indiana University.

And the Rock Cried Out. Unproduced screenplay written for Hecht-Hill-Lancaster under the direction of Sir Carroll Reed, London, summer 1957. Typescripts revised 1959, 1968, 1980. The Albright Collection; research photocopy on deposit at the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, Indiana University.

The Dark Carnival. Unproduced screenplay (typescript 1956, 1959). Adapted and expanded from “The Black Ferris” (1948) by way of the unproduced Merry-Go-Round (1954). Evolves into Something Wicked This Way Comes (novel, 1962; film, 1983). The Albright Collection; research photocopy on deposit at the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, Indiana University.

Icarus Montgolfier Wright (Format Films, 1962). Animated short film (Academy Award nomination, 1962). Adapted by Ray Bradbury and George Clayton Johnson from the original story (1956).

The Martian Chronicles (MGM, unproduced treatment and screenplay, 1961–63). Various mimeographs are known for this work and the follow-on screenplay written for Robert Mulligan and Alan Pakula (1963–64); photocopies in the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies at Indiana University are from the Albright Collection. Adapted from The Martian Chronicles (1950).

The Fox and the Forest (unproduced screenplay, 1971). Various mimeographs and photocopies are dated 1971, 1980, and 1984; photocopies in the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies at Indiana University are from the Albright Collection. Adapted from the original story (1950; original title, “To the Future”).

Picasso Summer (Warner Brothers / Seven Arts, 1972). Adapted by Bradbury (as Douglas Spaulding) and Edwin Boyd from “In a Season of Calm Weather” (1957) and from his own unproduced teleplay adaptation (1967, qv).

Something Wicked This Way Comes (Walt Disney-Bryna Company / Buena Vista Films, 1983). Script (abridged) published in Scholastic Scope, April 29, 1983. Adapted from “The Black Ferris” (1948) by way of the unproduced screenplays Merry-Go-Round (1954) and The Dark Carnival (1956) and the novel Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962). The 1983 script evolved from scripts written in 1978–79, from Bradbury’s own pre-production cuts, and from cuts made by John Mortimer for director Jack Clayton (1982); the final release reflects re-shoots co-directed by Bradbury.

Quest (M. Okada International Association, 1983). Produced by Saul Bass. Adapted from the original story, “Frost and Fire” (“The Creatures That Time Forgot,” 1946).

The Catacombs. Unproduced screenplay (1986). Adapted from the original story “The Next in Line” (1947). Printed copies are held by Bradbury and the Albright Collection; a research photocopy is on deposit at the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, Indiana University.

The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (Disney / Stuart Gordon, 1998). Adapted from his original story (1958; original title, “The Magic White Suit”) and his stage play (1963).

Bradbury film adaptations based on the works of other authors

Moby Dick (Warner Brothers, 1956...