About 180 people attended for IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE. Great atmosphere watching the old movie in 3d with the red and blue specs. We gave out copies of the original Universal preview audience questionnaire.

Tonight is A SOUND OF DIFFERENT DRUMMERS and F451 in a double bill.

quote:

Originally posted by philnic:
Tonight is A SOUND OF DIFFERENT DRUMMERS...

Better than A SOUND OF THUNDER!

It sure is, Doug! I've been wanting to see DIFFERENT DRUMMERS for years, and finally got my chance today. (Saw it twice actually, once in a private preview, then again in the public screening.)

It is clearly NOT Fahrenheit 451 - the plot doesn't follow the same path as Bradbury's story. But it clearly DOES have an identical premise. It also has a number of small elements which are clearly Bradburyesque: a man who is ridiculed for saying he wants to take a walk (like "The Pedestrian"), a scene of the "bookman" and his lady friend in the rain (like Montag and Clarisse).

DRUMMERS is, in its own right, a pretty good bit of TV drama.

...and I should add that we next move on to the final day of the event, with a double-bill of MOBY DICK and SOMETHING WICKED. Two films directly scripted by Ray Bradbury. Onward!

The whole film series went without a hitch, and we got some very attentive audiences for the discussion panels and Q&A sessions - especially on the last day, when we discussed MOBY DICK and SOMETHING WICKED, the two film Ray scripted himself.

Here's the panel from the SOUND OF DIFFERENT DRUMMERS/F451 discussion. Left to right: Ray Haberski, Director of American Studies at IU; De Witt Douglas Kilgore, Associate Professor of English and American Studies at IU (who also teaches SF); Jon Eller, Director of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies at IU; and Phil Nichols, Senior Lecturer in Video & Film Production, University of Wolverhampton.

Phil,
Congratulations on a successful and important week of activities at IU! It surely fanned some sparks and fueled other key RB fires. Any discussions (that can be shared here) on potential cinema projects related to 451, SWTWC, DW, et al? Or was discourse more critically and historically directed?

Here, just concluded three seminars on RB s.s. and had very interesting exchanges/questions on Imagination then-and-now, the Reality within "The Murderer" & "The Veldt', the Poetry of "Drummer Boy" & "Summer Running", the wonderful Humor within "Anthem Sprinters" & "Ice Cream Suit", and the Social Comments (before other authors did so) in "Big B and W Game" & Martian Chronicles.

Simply stated ~ Great Stuff!
So glad to hear all went well for you while stateside.
f

Thanks, fjp.

On a few occasions, discussion turned to projected future adaptations of Bradbury - often prompted by audience members who were frustrated by the inadequacies of some of the past adaptations. Much of the discussion of SOMETHING WICKED centred around the changes from the novel (which then led me into my explanation of how the script was compromised by "script doctoring" and by a panicked re-shoot after poor previews).

With a sigh, both Jon Eller and I referred to long-proposed (but still unactioned) remakes of MARTIAN CHRONICLES, ILLUSTRATED MAN, FAHRENHEIT 451 and SOMETHING WICKED; and the long-announced (but still not aired) ABC series THE WHISPERS, which is loosely based on Bradbury's "Zero Hour".

Phil, you are accomplishing great and noble works.