Toronto Star (19/Jun/1990) - Bradbury stays in control
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- article: Bradbury stays in control
- newspaper: Toronto Star (19/Jun/1990)
- keywords: Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV), Alfred Hitchcock, Ray Bradbury
Article
Bradbury stays in control
In plotting his return to series television, Ray Bradbury was determined that what happened to Alfred Hitchcock would never happen to him.
"I was afraid," says Bradbury, who was a writer on the famed director's anthology series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
"I had seen how TV treated Hitchcock. He didn't get the budgets he wanted, he didn't get anything he wanted. I thought, 'My God! This is my hero, look how they're treating him!' If Hitchcock couldn't get it, how would I get it?"
Before the chubby, jovial author agreed to do Ray Bradbury Theatre with Toronto's Atlantis Films several years ago, he turned down offers from Screen Gems and NBC.
On one occasion, contracts were on the desk when Bradbury excused himself for a moment and unceremoniously disappeared into a taxi.
"Barracudas!" he harrumphs good-naturedly. "I sat there and looked at the presidents and the vice-presidents, all smiling at me, and I thought, 'Barracudas!' Two seconds after the ink dries, they know more about writing than I do."
Luckily, he's pleased with Ray Bradbury Theatre.
So pleased, in fact, that the Los Angeles-based author came to southern Alberta to visit the set where four episodes are being filmed. Atlantis' partners in the project include Edmonton-based Allarcom Ltd., the Alberta Motion Picture Development Corp. and Calgary producer Doug MacLeod.
Relaxing in shorts and a nylon jacket, munching on an oversized bunwich, 70-year-old Bradbury, author of the classic sci-fi novel Fahrenheit 451, looks a little like an aging Dennis The Menace. A ruddy complexion, a shock of unruly white hair, a slightly wicked laugh.
He says things haven't changed all that much for him since his last regular TV gig writing for The Twilight Zone.
"I don't deal with sexual subjects, except indirectly. And I hate these modern horror films where they come at you with a chainsaw or tear off your arm and beat you over the head with it."
He adapts his own short stories — many from his famous collection The Martian Chronicles — into scripts for the series, which began production five years ago and is shown in Canada on the pay TV's First Choice and Superchannel.
One story, And The Moon Be Still As Bright, is about the perils of pollution. It was written 41 years ago.
"Who knew we would be in the mess we're in?" he says, grimacing. "I don't think about those things when I write because I don't like intellectually self-conscious stories. I hate stories that are good for you."
Nevertheless, he has applied his imagination to the environment by designing futuristic transit systems and shopping malls.
That kind of boundless energy and optimism are the most striking things about Bradbury. He has a new murder mystery novel, Graveyard For Lunatics, coming out in July. He is also working on an opera.
"It gives me a chance to make mistakes again," he says. "I love to make mistakes. You learn from your mistakes."
He would also welcome the chance to write another movie script. His best known was for 1953's Moby Dick, directed by John Huston, and his last was Disney's version of his own book Something Wicked This Way Comes.
"I'd love to do a movie, but no one ever calls me," he grouses.
"Ah, they're jealous. Take Steven Spielberg. He is a great lover of films but he doesn't know screenplays. He needs someone like me, but since he's made a billion dollars I guess he's right and I'm wrong."
