Hello All Ray Bradbury Fans,

I am not sure if this is the appropriate place to mention this, but I spoke with Ray yesterday afternoon to check out a rumor that a movie is being made of his story, The Sound of Thunder.

Ray replied that after a year of pre-production work, filning will start in Yucatan, Mexico after the first of the year and will star Pierce Brosnan. With a budget of $82 million it should give the other dinosaur movies a run for their money.
He sounded great and indicated that he was pleased to receive a photo from me of a field of dandelions.

WOW, Flyboy, I LOVE Pierce Brosnan! Finally a movie of his I will be excited and happy to watch! Glad to hear Ray sounds good. Has his speech completely improved since his stroke last year? I look forward to those dinosaurs. The one on the "Ray Bradbury Theater" version was enough to scare my cat, but not much else.

Dear Dandelion,

What an appropriate "handle" as Ray loves dandelions. He was in Minneapolis a year or so ago and commented on all of the dandelions that he saw. And there are lots in Minnesota. Now that I live in Florida, I don't believe I have seen even one.

Ray did sound great. He answered "Good Afternoon," in a strong, clear voice. But, unfortunatley, I had to cut the call short as my other phone was ringing and I couldn't miss the call.

I enjoyed the first two Jurassic Park movies, but haven't seen the third one yet. With all of the wizardry avalable to movie makers today, the dinosaur(s) should be realistic.

He mentioned that he had been corresponding with Richard Bach, the fellow through whom I got to meet Ray. Richard was my neighbor in Ottumwa,Iowa many years ago. It was while he lived in Ottumwa that he completed "Jonathan Livingston Seagull." Richard has been become somewhat of a recluse the past several years, while Ray is still out on the lecture circuit and responds to letters (at least he has to mine) and telephone calls.

I pray for many more years for Ray and his unique gift of story telling.

Flyboy...how does one go about contacting Ray? Where would you send a letter through?

Dear Tim,

You can contact Ray by writing to:

Ray Bradbury
c/o William Morrow and Company
1350 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10019

Like I said, he several several hundreds of letters a week, but I am sure that he does try to answer them all.

Michael

By the way, I read a few years ago that a new movie version of Fahrenheit 451 was going to be made, starring Mel Gibson. Does anyone know what happened to that? It certainly never came out here (South Africa).

I heard, and it was maybe even elsewhere on this board, that Gibson is definitely out and the movie is on hold until someone else is definitely in.

Dandelion,

You're right. Mel Gibson bought the rights to the movie, but after several screen play submissions (including, I believe, one by Ray) there was no decision as which to use. Mel's interest seemed to wane, and, indeed, the project is on hold.

I first heard about this in 1996 when I and my family visited Ray at his home and he said that a remake of F451 was in the works. He also mentioned that a movie might be made of The Martian Chronciles. He was not entirely happy with the TV version years ago.

Sadly, Bradbury recently said that his Martian Chronicles script was in it's TENTH draft.

Actually, information in the front of "From the Dust Returned" lists William Morrow as an imprint of HarperCollins. Here are two addresses and two phone numbers:

HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 E 53rd St
New York, NY 10022
(212) 207-7000

and
Harper Collins Publishers Inc.
1350 Avenue Of The Americas
New York, NY
(212) 261-6770

I urge everyone concerned to dial these numbers and ask the name of the person in charge of Mr. Bradbury's projects, specifically the one connected with his official website. Find out the name of this individual, the correct spelling and address, and then WRITE this person in polite but most emphatic terms urging them to employ a COMPETENT HUMAN BEING to moderate all boards on this forum! Since, at present, they don't even have an intelligent machine at work, and e-mails to feedback@authorsontheweb.com go unheeded, it's obviously time for serious protest! Thanks to all who participate.

Dear Dandelion,

Thanks for the updates on how to contact Ray through his publisher. Sorry I missed that.



[This message has been edited by flyboy (edited 01-18-2002).]

Okay, people, please disregard the above phone numbers. The operators don't know anything; they are trained to punch buttons to direct the caller immediately to machines who know nothing of use. You can try the e-mail address feedback@harpercollins.com and see if you get anywhere with that.
Here are the names of the people to contact by snail mail:
Publisher: Michael E. Morrison
He is the HEAD HONCHO, the TOP DOG. What goes wrong with projects associated with the company reflects on HIM.
Director of Publicity: Laura Leonard
Attention, Ms. Leonard: BAD PR!!!
This address should be correct for the William Morrow imprint:
10 East 53rd Street
New York, New York 10022
I don't know about everyone else here, but I plan to write the following regarding problems which need to be FIXED NOW:
1. ELIMINATE OFFENSIVE POSTS
ALL posts signed pothead, bradburyhater, and raybradbury should be IMMEDIATELY and PERMANENTLY DELETED, and the poster, under any and all aliases, BANNED from the offical Ray Bradbury Message Board! This individual's posts are of no use to anyone, including the poster. They are not only offensive, but are in places slanderous to the point of being illegal. What is the point of being required to register to post there except to keep just such influences out? I am a member of many boards. Non-profit, fan-run sites, and message groups do much, MUCH better than this official site!
Many people on this board are kids under 16, who were assigned Bradbury's work in school or discovered it on their own. Allowing this practice to continue may drive them away, or give them the idea that such things are acceptable!
This is an official site under Ray Bradbury's name, endorsed by his publisher, with the publisher's logo right on the front page (which is beautifully done, by the way.) Allowing such vandalism to the site to stand unchallenged is a direct affront to Mr. Bradbury's good name, a smear on the publisher's reputation, and an offense to all his fans, whether or not they frequent this site.
2. POSTING PROBLEMS
There is a problem with the board where new posts don't show up immediately. In some cases, mine have not shown up for days. Both posts on the board about this, and messages to feedback@authorsontheweb.com go unacknowledged and uncorrected. This has caused people to hit "send" sometimes two or three times. If the problem can't be fixed, please at least appoint a moderator to delete the duplicate posts! (When those are gone, there will be no need for the posts apologizing for the duplications. What to delete will be quite evident to anyone with the basic intelligence to moderate.) These are an annoyance and waste of time and space.
3. MISTAKE IN MORROW BOOKS?
Nothing to do with the website problems, but the title "One Timeless Spring" keeps turning up in the list of Bradbury's published books, including that in the front of "From the Dust Returned." Although this book was listed as being in prepublication back in 1994, I don't believe it ever actually appeared in print. If it did, I would love to hear about it. If not, its inclusion is misleading. Please look into the above matters. Thank you very much.

P. S. It's just kind of ironic that the PR person's name is Laura Leonard and the sister and brother who were meanest to Timothy in the original "Homecoming" short story were named Laura and Leonard. I was sorry those characters were omitted in "From the Dust Returned."

[This message has been edited by dandelion (edited 01-11-2002).]

Anyone know if Frank Darabont is still slated to do the F 451 remake? I'm not a particularly big fan of his work personally, but I know Ray was excited to have him helm the project after the Gibson fiasco.

quote:

Originally posted by flyboy:
Dandelion,

You're right. Mel Gibson bought the rights to the movie, but after several screen play submissions (including, I believe, one by Ray) there was no decision as which to use. Mel's interest seemed to wane, and, indeed, the project is on hold.

I first heard about this in 1996 when I and my family visited Ray at his home and he said that a remake of F451 was in the works. He also mentioned that a movie might be made of The Martian Chronciles. He was not entirely happy with the TV version years ago.

According to this interview
www.salon.com/people/feature/2001/08/29/bradbury/print.html

the director named above for "Fahrenheit 451" is also supposed to direct "The Martian Chronicles."

Hey flyboy,
got any word on Dandelion Wine? a screenplay? the rights? potential studio interests? actors? I just finished a feature in NH and I'd like to learn more about Wine. It's one of my faves. I posted a topic on the resources page. You can check out my website and get a hold of me via email at http://www.onthefringemovie.com/
Later,
Jeff Palmer
Dover NH

quote:

Originally posted by flyboy:
Hello All Ray Bradbury Fans,

I am not sure if this is the appropriate place to mention this, but I spoke with Ray yesterday afternoon to check out a rumor that a movie is being made of his story, The Sound of Thunder.

Ray replied that after a year of pre-production work, filning will start in Yucatan, Mexico after the first of the year and will star Pierce Brosnan. With a budget of $82 million it should give the other dinosaur movies a run for their money.
He sounded great and indicated that he was pleased to receive a photo from me of a field of dandelions.