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Director Zack Snyder at the premiere of Dawn of the Dead copyright Sue Schneider
© 2004 Sue Schneider

Zack Snyder Helming ILLUSTRATED MAN

By: Jarrod Sarafin, News Editor
Date: Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Interesting bit of news for all the Ray Bradbury fans out there. Director Zack Snyder's schedule continues to fill with Warner Bros choosing him to helm the next adaptation of Bradbury's ILLUSTRATED MAN, a collection of short stories from the author. Warner Bros has already had one adaptation based on the collection made back in 1969 with Rod Steiger starring in the title role. This next version will have Snyder taking the director's chair while his wife, Deborah Snyder, produces via their production company. Also in the producer's chair for the film is Frank Darabont & Denise Di Nova.

Plot Concept: "Illustrated" is a collection of unrelated stories that explore the nature of humankind and are linked by a storyteller whose tattoos come to life and tell a tale. Some of the better-known stories include "The Veldt," about two parents who use an artificial nursery that re-creates the African savanna to placate their children but get locked inside it by the kids; "The Other Foot," in which Mars has been colonized by black people who want to create a system of segregation when they learn that a rocket filled with white travelers is arriving from Earth; and "Marionettes Inc.," in which a man attempts to escape his unhappy marriage by replacing himself with a robot to fool his wife, only to discover that his wife left a while ago and he had been living with a robot version of her.

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Comments/Responses

Whiskeymovie • Aug 29, 2007, 06:25am •

I am not familarwith this story, but it sounds quite interesting. It will be interesting to see how they tie it together. Will the stories be independent of each other, or will there be a common tie? Zack Znyder seems to be the man. I have liked the movies he has done so far, so lets see what happens after The Watchmen.

wessmith1966 • Aug 29, 2007, 08:27am •

Great read, but I'm not all that interested in seeing a new movie version of it. I'd rather see Zack working on something else.

snallygaster • Aug 29, 2007, 08:49am •

Bradbury is probably my favorite author, but I'm not sure how they'll pull this off. The short stories are only connected by the fact that they are tattoos on the title character's body. Of course, this was also written back in the day when men covered head-to-toe in tattoos were considered sideshow freaks, whereas today they're fairly commonplace.

It would probably have to be a collection of shorter stories loosely pulled together, or have a more central story about the Illustrated Man himself, in which case they'd be getting away from the source material. I never saw the 1969 movie, but now I'm curious as to how that one was pulled off.

dragon261 • Aug 29, 2007, 09:48am •

Not very well..because of lack luster performances from the films two leads. The film is rated PG but today would probably have gotten an R or PG 13 rating. The rating system during that era was even more ambiguous than it is today. I think the best way to do this is to shoot the Illustrated Man scenes in black and white but with the Illustrations in full color to add to the surreal quality of the film. The original film failed to impart the wonder and horror that came across in the book.

monkeyfoot • Aug 29, 2007, 10:27am •

This is a remake I wouldn't have any problem with since it's based on a story/stories from a book. I also don't think too many people are familiar with the original screen version. As I recall it very much felt like a 60s era film. Steiger played the Illustrated man and different roles in each story segment.

scoundrel • Aug 29, 2007, 11:15am •

Wow. I'm seriously stoked about this. Unless he tweaks it majorly, it will be a very different kind of film since the book is made up of a collection of short stories and the only thing tying them together are the Illustrated Man himself, but only as a device, not as anything more. I wonder how the storyline was handled in the original film. Did the Illustrated Man get more screentime than he did pagetime in the book?

dragon261 • Aug 29, 2007, 11:56am •

Yes in the movie the Illustrated Man got considerably more screen time than page time. In the book the it described the individual illustrations as a bridge between each story. In the movie and the book it says that the illustrations moved across his skin constantly, but on screen you never saw them move. In the movie the Illustations were kind of pop artish a refelection of the sensiblites of the late sixties, compared to the near photo realistic work you see now. With motion capture the actor would likely not have to endure having the them hand applied.

muchdrama • Aug 29, 2007, 05:51pm •

Well, at least they're working with first rate material...I read Illustrated Man in high school, along with anything else Bradbury wrote.

I'm hooked.

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