It’s been nearly 50 years since François Truffaut directed an adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (and more than 60 years since the novel was published), but with poorly-written slash fiction now running rampant, HBO is looking to thin the book herd a bit. The Wrap reports the pay-cable network is developing a new adaptation of the 1953 novel to be written, directed, and produced by 99 Homes’ Ramin Bahrani.
There’s no word on when filming will begin, but You Me Her executive producers Alan Gasmer and Peter Jaysen are set to co-produce with Bahrani. The adaptation will see the Man Push Cart filmmaker shift focus from the bleak realities of the present to a dystopian future where firemen set fires, not fight them, but only to ensure that all literature burns (the new film will presumably include e-readers). Although production seems to have languished on film adaptations of some of Bradbury’s more sprawling works, his award-winning tale of Guy Montag’s journey from fireman to incendiary has proven easier to dramatize for the big screen and radio (and a computer game). Truffaut’s adaptation—his first film in color and English—starred Oskar Werner and Julie Christie, but didn’t quite bowl viewers over when it premiered in 1966.