The New Ray Bradbury Review: Number 1 2008

Ray Bradbury: Adaptations in Other Media

178 Ray Bradbury: Adaptations in Other Media Compiled by Jon Eller Bradbury’s extensive adaptation of his own work to other genres and media is cataloged here, followed by a shorter but no less significant listing of Bradbury’s adaptations of the work of other authors. The second half of the catalog consists of an even more extensive listing of Bradbury work adapted by other writers. Within each of these major categories of authorship, adaptations are separated into parallel categories of genre and media: film, graphic adaptation, radio drama, short stories, novels, stage drama (including musicals and opera), and television. Audio recordings of Bradbury’s work represent a variant form of presentation rather than adaptation, and are not included here. Most of Bradbury’s adaptations involve transforming his own stories into scripts for stage, film, television and, from time to time, radio. But one should never assume that all of Bradbury’s multimedia work can be classified as adaptation . Original plays, such as A Clear View of an Irish Mist, have no antecedent in Bradbury’s stories and are therefore considered new works rather than adaptations. A few stories are actually adaptations of earlier dramatic forms and are listed here. Bradbury’s 1972 novel The Halloween Tree is an adaptation of an unproduced 1967–68 animated feature screenplay for MGM, and will be found in this listing even though the public first encountered this perennial October favorite only in the novel form. In all such cases, the original source of Bradbury’s adaptation is noted within the entry. In developing this bibliography, I have stretched the definition of adaptation in only one case: Bradbury’s unproduced animated screenplay Nemo! (1983–84) represents an original story line, but since Bradbury chose to work within the basic premises of the original Winsor McKay comic strip tradition, this screenplay (and the actual Japanese production adapted from it) appear in the listing. In general, then, an original work by Bradbury (regardless of genre or media) will not have its own entry here, but any original work that is the basis for an adaptation by Bradbury or by other authors will be identified within the entry for that adaptation. Entries appear in chronological order within each genre or media category; stage productions are ordered by date of first performance except in cases (such as Bradbury’s early Irish stories-into-plays) where publication precedes performance. Multiple adaptations of a single Bradbury title are not uncommon in the radio, film, and television categories; BIBLIOGRAPHY Adaptations in Other Media 179 within each of these genre categories, such multiple versions will be grouped together in a single entry anchored to the earliest adaptation. A master title index concludes this bibliography. This index summarizes the full spectrum of adaptations across all genres and media for each Bradbury title. Adaptations that have been published are so indicated; unpublished adaptations are annotated to indicate if manuscripts (usually typescripts) or production-circulation printings exist. Broadcast or release dates are listed for radio, television, or film adaptations, and opening performance dates are listed for stage performances. All known published or printed adaptations are included; however, since there have been thousands of amateur, educational, and professional performances of Bradbury’s dramatic adaptations, only the major stage productions are included for the entries in this category. In compiling this catalog for the first volume of The New Ray Bradbury Review, I have relied heavily on the Albright Collection and the archival photocopies of this collection that are deposited in the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, Indiana University School of Liberal Arts. October’s Friend, the unpublished catalog of the Albright Collection prepared by Jim Welsh and Donn Albright, has been an immense help in designing this catalog and verifying the entries. William F. Nolan’s Ray Bradbury Companion (Detroit: Gale, 1975), for decades the primary published source of information on Bradbury’s original and adapted works, was another foundational source for my research. I’m also greatly indebted to Phil Nichols of the University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom, for his pioneering work in Bradbury media studies and his extensive on-line listings of Bradbury’s media work. I was also able to draw on my own listings of Bradbury’s published stories and prose fiction in Eller and Touponce, Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction (Kent State UP, 2004). All reprintings and adaptations of the original stories are consolidated in The Life of Fiction’s backmatter under “Bradbury’s Fiction, Year-by-Year.” Bibliographical identifiers...