Moby Dick starring Gregory Peck is now available through YouTube Movies. In 1954 Ray Bradbury spent six months in Ireland working on the screenplay for the film directed by John Huston. It was Bradbury’s first screenplay for a book he hadn’t written himself but Huston, impressed with the lyricism of Bradbury’s writing and the command of sea lore shown in the short story “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms,” had sought Bradbury out to bring Herman Melville’s American classic to the screen.
The relationship with the notoriously difficult Huston was not without its drama and Bradbury eventually reworked the short stories and plays that fictionalized his experience in Ireland into the 1992 novel Green Shadows, White Whale. With the success of Moby Dick and the reception of Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury found himself in demand in Hollywood’s film and television industry, soon adding scriptwriting for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Playhouse 90, and The Twilight Zone to his already impressive resume.
Read an excerpt from Jonathan Eller’s Bradbury Unbound dealing with Bradbury’s time in Ireland.