He's been distracted lately with Indiana Jones and Stephen King, but director Frank Darabont is still keen as mustard to adapt Ray Bradbury's classic sci-fi parable Fahrenheit 451. As long as the author stays alive.
Sci-Fi Wire reports Darabont speaking at this year's Saturn Awards, where he picked up a gong for the DVD of The Mist. "Boy, do I want to make Fahrenheit 451," he gushes, but concedes that whether the movie goes ahead is down to the casting. "It's not vastly expensive, but it requires somebody that will justify that investment," he says, hinting that the project has been offered to someone of reasonable stature who is currently umm-ing and ahh-ing.
So a bigger prospect than The Mist then (not to disparage Thomas Jane). But Darabont has one more stipulation before he starts shooting: "I promised myself that I would at least go into production while Ray Bradbury was still with us. It's not like he's going to leave tomorrow, but he's not getting any younger..."