‘Like a fever dream’: the making of HBO’s Fahrenheit 451 – fascist-themed science fiction updated for the social media era
This is Ray Bradbury’s warning in a new way, says indie director Ramin Bahrani about made-for-TV adaptation of author’s 1953 novel set in an ‘alternate tomorrow’ in which books are banned
“I think most directors will work with anyone who gives them the money and enough freedom,” says Ramin Bahrani, when I meet him in Cannes’ Carlton Hotel. The director cut his teeth on independent cinema on films such as Man Push Cart and Chop Shop. But his latest project, an adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, is produced by HBO, the cable/satellite network behind Game of Thrones.
“I think they’re just risky and smart,” he says. “They think challenging people is good.” Taking on a provocative book like Bradbury’s does exactly that.
The Handmaid’s Tale remade for Trump era: Hulu starts streaming series that’s already earned buzz and blowback
Set in what Bahrani calls “an alternate tomorrow”, it’s a world where books are banned and any that are found are burned by so-called firemen, members of a fascistic police force.
“I wanted to know how you imagine those ideas with the internet, with social media, with modern technology,” he says. “What would that actually mean? And to try and figure that out I had to start writing.”
It’s not the first screen adaptation of Bradbury’s novel. François Truffaut took it on in 1966, in a film starring Julie Christie and Oskar Werner. Bahrani “wanted to stick” to the author’s ideas, “but be a little bit free in changing the story and characters”.
