I couldn't have said it better myself.

WOW... GREAT idea..,

Mamouru Oshii (director of "Ghost in the Shell" and Avalon", writer of "Jin - Roh") would be perfect.

There definetely should be a Fahrenheit-Anim� film!

Okay, my thoughts on animation. Being an animation/film major, I am VERY particular on the quality of animation. I have yet to see any japanese CHARACTER animation that matches the quality of Disney stuff. Yes, Disney needs to grow some juevos and venture out of their safe, cute territory, but they DO have the best animation because they have the best animators. (except for a few Disney animators that now work for Dreamworks, i.e. James Baxter and the likes) I agree with Mr. Dark's forst comment that it needs to be live action to accurately portray the ironic realism of the story. Although I wish to someday bring back stop motion to film special effects, I think the CG stuff is getting alot better. For the mechanical hound, I'm sure they can make the model look cool in CG, they just have to make sure to animate him well. Look at alot of obvious CG effects in movies, and you'll find that the model looks realistic, but it just doesn't move right. Look at still pictures of the Hulk from the new Hulk movie. Looks great. Now look at motion images from the film. Looks really cheesy. Back to the animated 451, This book gives me a certain feeling that could be captured so well if you had the right cinematographer working on the film. Plus, there's not a whole lot of "action" action until the third act. I say NAY to an animated version. Besides, Francois Truffaut's version might as well be considered animation. It's so cheesy and colorful in that funny 60's modernism way. I just watched it again the other day. The end sequence when Montag is at the "book farm" was beautifully done, but it's time for a better adaptation. One that rips out the pages and stuffs 'em into the camera.
P.S. I don't count waking life as animation. That's called rotoscoping, or drawing on top of live action footage.

[This message has been edited by groon (edited 11-11-2003).]

Groon--For the hound, could it be done like they did Gollum in the Lord of the Rings series? I don't know anything at all about animation or cg, so I'm not entirely clear about what you felt would work and not work. I thought Gollum was tremendously done, and I know the Oscars committee even bounced around the idea of creating a new awards category based on his performance. (Andy Sekharis, or something like that was his name, wasn't it?) Whatever that technology is called, I think it could make a great hound.

Imskipper
Sorry 'bout that. CG stands for computer graphics. Yes, computer animated special effects ARE becoming MUCH better, and Gollum is a great example of what can be done nowadays! He's an organic character too! It's MUCH more difficult to create a believable organic character like Gollum than it would be to do a robotic, solid surfaced, robotic character like the mechanical hound. I think with today's technology they could easily create a realistic looking mechanical hound in the computer. Just look at the droids in the new Star Wars movies! The only thing about the mechanical hound is that the design of what he looks like would have to be VERY well done!

The hound could be done practically and would probably be more frightening if not seen clearly for more than a second or two (like the shark in Jaws). I envision seeing the hound at rest, or poised just before an attack, in silhouette or extreme close ups of specific parts of its body. People's reaction to the hound and the aftermath of its attack would leave more to the viewer's imagination and we all make it personally scarier than anyone could "show" it to be.

I like your idea. An Alfred Hitchcock approach.

I've got to say, all this speculation about F451 is rather inappropriate considering the project is already underway and HAS A DIRECTOR.

I'm guessing the movie will be live action since it'll be directed by Frank Darabont, of Green Mile fame.

I'm actually not sure I'm glad about having Darabont on the project. He doesn't seem to be the type of director to do F451, considering his rep for making rather squishy, sentimental films. F451 is definitely a more sharp, dark story, and thus would probably be better directed by someone who has a rep for making those kinds of films.

I think if the movie were like Minority Report but without the sappy ending, it would be great.

As to CG, I'm guessing that's how they'll do it. But wasn't the whole book-pigeon thing simply metaphorical in the first place? I'm not sure it'll work as well visually.

I'm all for Greentown's "don't show it" approach. CG robots are so everpresent in film these days, they's lost all effect. A more dramatic approach WOULD make it seem more dangerous. And to think Truffaut COULD have done exactly that back in the '60s, but did he? No, he just wrote the hound out of the script and tried to make the firepole be ominous all on it's own.

ergo: There may be a movie version in the works, but will it be THE movie version? Only time will tell, and who will be the critics? We the Bradbury fans will. We know what we want to see, and what we don't want to see. I'm not saying that Frank Darabont comes on this site and reads our posts, but it's important that fans of any book be vocal about what makes that book important to them, so that the filmmakers (who really should be fans of that book themselves) know how to best approach a subject that is very important to thier audience (the hardcore fans of the books)

As for the alleged Frank Darabont Fahrenheit 451 movie, when are they going to begin shooting? Has anyone seen any stills, or concept designs? I haven't heard ANYTHING except what I hear on this page and the links people put on this page. Is this thing for real?

I think that an anime would be good if it was by the people who made Cowboy Bebop. When I was reading f451, I pictured a bullet time type stuff when montag blew the hound away with the flamethrower. But real people, and a true understanding of the book would be best.

groon:

Hmm!
I read that the new 'Fahrenheit 451' is in production...but what exactly does that mean? Writers meeting for drinks?

Here's something...who knows what. Supposedly a sketch for the movie, which is now slated for 2005. Does this fellow work with the production company, or is he an outsider putting pictures on the web. Whatever it is....THIS is supposed to be an idea for the fire truck....

(click on, or type into finder): http://www.haraldbelker.com/moviemotor8.jpg

Very cool sketches!!

unordinarydesperado,
While I tend to be anti-anime, I'd have to say that Cowboy Beeop is probably the one exception. I enjoyed the series and thought the characters and the whole concept were very cool, but what really did it for me was the soundtrack by Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts. Man, that was some kick-@$$ music!

Wonderful Salamander! Would look screaming on film..

While these sketches are pretty interesting, I'm thinking they look a little too anime, which is nice if that's what they're going for, but personally I'm not a fan of the genre. Cartoons just aren't the same these days, ya know? Merry Melodies...now there are some good cartoons! They don't make 'em like that anymore.