Did you know Ray Bradbury wrote the screenplay for John Huston's 1956 film, Moby Dick? Here, they're discussing pages of the script. #RayBradbury #BradburyInHollywood #FunFact #FunFactFriday pic.twitter.com/UV0R3XVPIJ
— Ray Bradbury Official (@raybradbury) June 28, 2024
Even as he became a literary icon in science fiction, Ray Bradbury was an avid fan of John Huston movies. At an opportunity to meet Huston, Bradbury expressed his admiration and gave Huston a few of his books. After reading them, Huston called Bradbury and proposed making a movie out of one of Bradbury's books, but it was not to be. Instead, Huston eventually hired Bradbury to write a screenplay for Moby Dick -a book Bradbury hadn't even read.
That's how Bradbury ended up spending six months in Ireland rewriting the notoriously difficult Moby Dick for the big screen. He made more money than he ever had before, but was treated horribly by Huston. Maggie Bradbury considered conditions so bad that she took their children and went to Italy. The experience was so taxing that Bradbury turned down all the screenwriting offers that poured in afterward. The moral of the story is to never meet your heroes. Read about the screenwriter behind Moby Dick and the ordeal that project turned out to be at the Los Angeles Review of Books. -via Strange Company
Commenting on Neatorama will earn you NeatoPoints!