The Whispers = "Zero Hour"

On Monday 1st June, ABC airs the first episode of The Whispers, a science-fiction TV series based on Ray Bradbury's short story "Zero Hour". The series was announced a long time ago, and has been delayed several times. Let's hope the wait has been worth it.

"Zero Hour" was first published in 1947, in the pulp magazine Planet Stories, a regular home for Bradbury stories in the 1940s. Today you can find it in several Bradbury books: it's in the 1951 collection The Illustrated Man, the 1960s compilation S is for Space, and the 2003 retrospective collection Bradbury Stories: 100 of his most celebrated tales.

Planet Stories, fall 1947 issue.  Click to embiggen.

Bradbury's story is about an alien invasion with a difference. The alien - Drill - finds a way of communicating with Earth children.The children incorporate Drill's ideas into their play, and eventually enable Drill to take over the Earth. Like John Wyndham in The Midwich Cuckoos, Bradbury manages to tap into something inherently frightening about children. Perhaps they are too innocent, so that they just have to be up to something.

But what Bradbury's story is really about is... bad parenting. As with another of his classic short stories, "The Veldt", the parents just don't pay enough attention to the kids. They've got enough adult things to pre-occupy them, and would rather just send the kids off to play, or to sit in front of the TV. Their lack of interest in what their kids are up to, and specifically their lack of interest in the children's play, becomes the parents' downfall.

Bradbury often said that he didn't predict the future, but instead tried to prevent it. "Zero Hour" is a classic Bradburyan warning: pay more attention to your kids, or else...

"Zero Hour" has remarkable staying power. Although the story is dated in places, and clearly reads like something from the 1950s (although it was written in the 1940s), it is sufficiently non-specific about future technologies that it can stand up well today. It has long been popular in other media, too. It was all over American radio in the 1950s: it was adapted for Dimension X in 1950; Lights Out in 1951; Escape in 1953; Suspense three times (1955,1958 and 1960); X Minus One in 1955. And it has been made into a short film, and adapted by Bradbury himself for TV's  Ray Bradbury Theater - see the Youtube video below.

Although Bradbury's short story is still in copyright, somewhere along the line Anthony Ellis' 1950s radio script for "Zero Hour" slipped into the public domain, and has become a popular source for re-enactors of old-time radio. You can find the script here.

At the time of writing, I haven't seen The Whispers. Given that there have been some dreadful adaptations of Bradbury over the years, I am not expecting much from the series. But I have my fingers crossed that Bradbury's concept is strong enough to shine through whatever ABC can do to it!

Ray Bradbury - "Minor Poet"

On 10th July 1972, Ray Bradbury​ was the first speaker in a twelve-week series of free lectures entitled Cosmic Evolution: Man's Descent from the Stars at San Francisco's Exploratorium. "I will be participating as a minor poet and sub-minor philosopher," Ray said, "seeking to explain our age and the great three-billion-year age ahead."

By this time, Bradbury had been closely associated with space - partly through his fiction, but more importantly through his non-fiction writings and public speaking.

Other contributors to the lecture series were all scientists, including: Freeman Dyson, who lectured on intelligent life in the universe; Nobel Prize-winning chemist Melvin Calvin, on the origin of life; and Philip Morrison, who concluded the series with "The Context of Mankind: a Summation."

Five years later, Bradbury and Morrison would sit together on a NASA panel with novelist James Michener and explorer Jacques Cousteau, discussing "Why Man Explores". The answer to such a question clearly required not just a scientific answer, but a poetic one.

Start Date for THE WHISPERS, based on Bradbury short story

After much unexplained delay, ABC has finally announced an air date for the new series The Whispers, which is based on the classic Ray Bradbury short story "Zero Hour".

TVLine.com broke the news, and published the first preview of the official poster.

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea is the latest release from Colonial Radio Theatre, the audio drama company whose previous hits include Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, Dandelion Wine, Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Halloween Tree.

As with Colonial's Bradbury productions, 20,000 Leagues stays true to the source material - although if you are only familiar with the 1954 film (or any of the many TV remakes), there may be some surprises for you here. The first surprise might be the cover art, seeming to imply that Captain Nemo is perhaps some kind of Indian nobleman, but even this is true to Jules Verne, although it is in Verne's sequel The Mysterious Island that this aspect of Nemo's past is revealed.

Verne's extraordinary voyage is really a tour of the world under the sea, in itself a rather undramatic premise. It succeeds by the vividness of the wonders he describes, and by the verisimilitude of the fantastic events that befall the cast of characters: the French scientist Arronax, his assistant Conseil, and Canadian whaler Ned Land, all of whom become unwitting captives of the myterious Captain Nemo. The other element which draws the reader (or listener) forward is the mystery of Nemo himself. What motivates his vengeful attacks on ships of all nations? Who are the other occupants of Nemo's wondrous submarine the Nautilus? How can they possibly survive life beneath the oceans?

Colonial's Nemo is J.T.Turner, who plays him as appropriately larger than life. Although we never fully discover all of Nemo's secrets, we do learn of his intense sadness when there is loss of life among his own crew, and we do learn of an emotional trauma related to his wife and children. It is to Colonial's credit that these humanising elements of the story are retained alongside the rollicking adventure of fighting giant squid and escaping from cannibals.

Something else I admire about this production is its period setting. It might have been tempting to either update the story, or eliminate the specifically outdated elements. But I'm pleased to see that this version clearly keeps the story before the completion of the Suez Canal, and even allows Verne's mistaken assumption that the South Pole is on a floating ice cap (as the North Pole is), rather than on the terra firma of the continent of Antarctica.

Ordering details for Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea can be found on Colonial's website: http://www.colonialradio.com/

The April Witch

Into the air, over the valleys, under the stars, above a river, a pond, a road, flew Cecy. Invisible as new spring winds, fresh as the breath of clover rising from twilight fields, she flew. She soared in doves as soft as white ermine, stopped in trees and lived in blossoms, showering away in petals when the breeze blew. She perched in a lime-green frog, cool as mint by a shining pool. She trotted in a brambly dog and barked to hear echoes from the sides of distant barns. She lived in new April grasses, in sweet clear liquids rising from the musky earth.

It's spring, thought Cecy. I'll be in every living thing in the world tonight...

- Ray Bradbury, "The April Witch", Saturday Evening Post, April 5th 1952.

Bradbury on Screen: Twin Evils

Today sees the climax of our film series Ray Bradbury: From Science to the Supernatural in Bloomington, Indiana. To finish, we have two films with screenplays by Ray Bradbury.

Moby Dick (1956) was not Bradbury's first screenwriting job, but it was certainly the one which established him as a quality writer for the screen. He shares screenplay credit with John Huston, but a study of Bradbury's final draft script with the finished film shows that Bradbury wrote the majority of what was filmed - although he was, of course, working under guidance from Huston.

The film influenced Bradbury's career in many ways, and really echoed through much of his work that he did in the following forty years or so, some of which I discuss in my review of Moby Dick, which you can find here.

Our second Bradbury-scripted film can also be said to have occupied Ray for thirty-five years, in that it has its origins in a 1948 short story, "The Black Ferris", which Bradbury then developed into a screen treatment in the late 1950s, turned into a novel in the 1960s, and finally scripted (several times) in the 1970s and 1980s. Something Wicked This Way Comes, finally produced by Disney in 1983, was directed by Jack Clayton, and features some memorable scenes - such as the library confrontation between Mr Dark and Mr Halloway - which Bradbury refined through his many re-writings as the story evolved from initial premise through to final screenplay.

Unfortunately, the film didn't do well with preview audiences, and so it was extensively re-worked. New scenes were written and shot, and the whole finale sequence was re-edited. Special visual effects were added to give a more supernatural dimension to some scenes, and the original George Delerue score was replaced with a new one by James Horner.

Clayton and Bradbury had a serious falling-out during the making of the film, and although they maintained a diplomatic silence about this while the film was on first release, Bradbury later let it be known that his and Clayton's decades-long friendship was over. The two had met in 1954 - when Bradbury was working on Moby Dick.

Both films play on ideas of evil, and both make use of omens to build an atmosphere of fear. The great Royal Dano appears in both films, and is the prophet of doom in each one.

In between the two films, there will be a discussion session, where Jon Eller and I will attempt to unravel the complex production histories of the two films. If you can join us, we'd love to see you there.

I've blogged quite a few times on Moby  and Something Wicked: Moby Dick posts are here; and Something Wicked posts are here.

Two Ways To Burn A Book...

 Tonight, the Ray Bradbury film series Ray Bradbury: From Science to the Supernatural continues in Indiana, with a double bill and a discussion panel.

First on screen is a genuine rarity: an episode of the classic 1950s live TV anthology series Playhouse 90 which has never been given any kind of repeat broadcast. Nor has it ever seen any kind of commercial release. "A Sound of Different Drummers" is an original TV drama written by Robert Alan Aurthur, about agents of the state who send books for incineration.

Now, if you think that sounds like Fahrenheit 451, imagine what Ray Bradbury thought when he saw it back in 1957.

Bradbury initiated legal proceedings, claiming that Playhouse 90 had taken his story without permission. At first, he lost. But on appeal, and with the presentation of evidence that Aurthur had prior knowledge of Fahrenheit, he won.

There are three good accounts of "A Sound of Different Drummers". One is online, in Stephen Bowie's excellent Classic TV History blog. Bowie has actually watched the episode (researchers can access a copy at the Paley Center in New York), and makes some great observations about John Frankenheimer's direction. A second account is given in Gene Beley's book Ray Bradbury Uncensored. The third account, and the one which gives most detail of the legal case, is in Jon Eller's biography Ray Bradbury Unbound.


Jon Eller will be co-hosting tonight's screening, and also participating in the discussion panel which will be sandwiched between "Drummers" and Fahrenheit 451.

Which brings me to our second offering of the evening: Francois Truffaut's film version of Fahrenheit 451. This 1966 film is a curious item. Not exactly typical Truffaut - it was Truffaut's first colour film, his first film made for an American studio, his first film made outside of France, and his first and only English-language film.

Truffaut declared that he wasn't interested in science fiction, and this makes him a curious choice to direct Fahrenheit. What attracted him to the story was the very notion of book-burners. As a lifelong bibliophile, he took great delight in thinking through the consequences of a world without books.

Contemporary viewers and critics were somewhat perplexed by the film. The mere fact of it being a British-made film of an American book, directed by a French filmmaker, gave it a strange feel. The decision to largely avoid any chemistry between the characters of Montag, Linda Montag and Clarisse gave it a coldness. Some interpreted this revealing a lack of ability on Truffaut's part. My own view is that Truffaut was very conscious of what he was doing, and indeed his films prior to Fahrenheit demonstrate a clear understanding of human relationships. The coldness of Fahrenheit is not a failing; it is the central message of Truffaut's view of a world without books.

Showing Truffaut's vision of Bradbury's text immediately after Aurthur and Frankenheimer's view of a similar (but not identical) scenario will, I hope, allow us to consider different interpretations of the same basic idea. Aurthur and Bradbury were both writing in the 1950s, the era of McCarthyism, but also the era when television was becoming the leading popular medium, threatening to bring about the end of radio, cinema, theatre and literacy. Truffaut was responding to the 1960s, with television rapidly moving towards McLuhan's vision of the "global village".



In between the screenings this evening, there will be a discussion panel. Jon Eller and I will be joined by Ray Haberski, who heads American Studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and by De Witt Douglas Kilgore, a leading science fiction scholar from Indiana University.

Details of how to obtain tickets for tonight's free events are here: http://www.cinema.indiana.edu/about/visiting-the-cinema/

Bradbury on Screen: It Came From Outer Space

Tonight, we continue the film event Ray Bradbury: From Science To The Supernatural in Bloomington, Indiana - with a rare 3D screening of It Came From Outer Space.

The film was made from a detailed screen treatment by Ray Bradbury. In 1952, with no real screenwriting experience to speak of, Bradbury was contracted to create and develop a film story for Universal. Being somewhat naive, and perhaps getting carried away with his idea, Bradbury wrote several versions of his treatment, culminating in one which was over a hundred pages long. In all but its technical formatting, this was a screenplay rather than a treatment.

To turn Bradbury's screen story into a shooting script, Harry Essex was brought in. Essex freely admitted that his job was very easy, as all he had to do was re-shape the treatment to conform to the screenplay format, and add some dialogue.

It Came From Outer Space joined the wave of science fiction films which had begun with Destination Moon in 1950, continued with The Day the Earth Stood Still in 1951, and with War of the Worlds in 1953. By the end of the decade, the SF film genre would deteriorate into repetitive monster movies - but for now, Bradbury was able to make a significant contribution to an intelligent form of SF in which being alien doesn't necessarily mean being evil or hostile.

Twenty-five years later, Steven Spielberg would declare It Came From Outer Space as one of his key influences in developing Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

My review of It Came From Outer Space includes some extended quotes from Bradbury. You can find it here.

Tonight in Indiana University Cinema in Bloomington, Indiana, we will be presenting the film in 3D. Viewers will be given the classic red and blue glasses. Jon Eller and I will introduce the film, and we will be joined on stage by IU's resident 3D film expert Chris Eller. There will be a post-screening Q&A session. Details of ticketing arrangements can be found here: http://www.cinema.indiana.edu/about/visiting-the-cinema/.

Bradbury films online

If you couldn't get to the opening night of Ray Bradbury: From Science to the Supernatural - or if you were there and want to see the films again - here is a handy collection of links to online versions of some of the films.

Icarus Montgolfier Wright
This is a different print to the one we screened, and lacks the Bradbury introduction (which was added c.1970).

And The Moon Be Still As Bright
From The Martian Chronicles.

The Burning Man
 From The Twilight Zone.

Marionettes, Inc.
From The Ray Bradbury Theater. Watch out for the Bradbury stand-in in the title sequence. (From the front, the legs and arms of "Ray" are significantly skinnier than the real Ray.)

The Life Work of Juan Diaz
From The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

TV + Shorts Programme

Today sees the opening night of Ray Bradbury: From Science To The Supernatural, the film event I am co-hosting in Bloomington, Indiana. We're starting with some short items, for two reasons: first, I maintain that the short form invariably gives a better representation of Bradbury's storytelling (he was more of a short-story writer than a novelist); and second, it allows us to give a rapid overview of the range of Bradbury's work.

In this one evening, we can show Bradbury the visionary of the space age, alongside Bradbury's nostalgic recollection of his childhood; Bradbury's considered reflection on the rights and wrongs of explorers pushing forward into new territory, next to his fictionalised reflection of his own experience of the "alien" Mexican approach to death.

Here's what we're showing:

Icarus Montgolfier Wright
This Oscar-nominated short animation from 1962 (it lost to the Hubleys' "The Hole") is based on a story first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1956. George Clayton Johnson - who would become known as a significant writer for The Twilight Zone, Star Trek and the original Ocean's Eleven - drafted the original screenplay directly from Bradbury's story. Bradbury then re-wrote the script, taking the opportunity to tweak the story. The two writers share screenplay credit.

The imagery for the film comes entirely from the artist Joe Mugnaini, who by 1962 had become intricately connected to Bradbury's work. His illustrations had graced the covers (and interiors) of a number of Bradbury books, most notably Fahrenheit 451 and The Golden Apples of the Sun.

And The Moon Be Still As Bright
When NBC broadcast its Martian Chronicles miniseries in 1980, Ray Bradbury famously declared to the press that he found it "boring". And indeed, the series as a whole is remarkably lacklustre, with a leaden pace. Oddly, the teleplay - by the usually excellent Richard Matheson - seems blameless: for the most part, the miniseries follows the fascinating events of the novel. And yet the Bradbury magic is mostly lost. The blame must surely lie with the director Michael Anderson, whose previous forays into science fiction territory (1984, Logan's Run) were similarly unengaging.

One segment which came close to capturing the dynamics, mood and tone of the Bradbury original comes in the last part of the first episode of the miniseries, which adapts the turning-point story "And The Moon Be Still As Bright". The story (and episode) captures the shocking discovery that the native Martians have been wiped out by disease brought from Earth, and then considers the dilemma of what to do: press on, and take over the Red Planet, or seek to preserve the remains of the lost Martian society. Bernie Casey puts in an energetic turn as Spender, the Earthman who speaks for Mars.

The Burning Man
This episode of The Twilight Zone from 1985 has a script and direction by Ray's friend J.D. Feigelson. I have always put this episode forward as one of the best examples of Bradbury adapted for screen. It's short, atmospheric, and engaging. Roberts Blossom dominates the screen.

For more on this episode, see my review, here.

Marionettes Inc.
One of the better early episodes of Ray's own TV series, The Ray Bradbury Theater (1985), this one stars James Coco in dual roles: Braling, and the robotic Braling II. As with all episodes of Ray Bradbury Theater, the script was written by Bradbury himself, and allows us to see how he re-imagined the story nearly forty years after its creation: it's a Bradbury classic, dating back to 1949.

It's been adapted for TV several times, including a version for Alfred Hitchcock Presents in the 1950s. Read my review of the Ray Bradbury Theater version here.

The Life Work of Juan Diaz
This Bradbury-scripted episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour dates from 1964, and is based on a short story first published in Playboy the year before. Bradbury was inspired by his visit to Mexico in the 1940s when, as a young writer, he encountered the Mexican Day of the Dead, and visited the famous mummies of Guanajuato. That short visit gave him experiences which would surface in a number of short stories, including "The Next in Line", "El Dia de Muerte" and "The Candy Skull".

This episode was directed by the estimable actor-producer-director Norman Lloyd, who produced and directed most of Bradbury's work for the Hitchcock series. My review of the episode is here.