Michael B. Jordan (Creed, Black Panther, Fruitvale Station) and Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road, Man of Steel, Nocturnal Animals) are attached to star in Fahrenheit 451, HBO’s movie adaptation of Ray Bradbury‘s 1953 novel of the same name set in a dystopian future where books are illegal and “firemen” are tasked with destroying them.

The movie has been in development at HBO for just over a year now and is set to be directed by Ramin Bahrani, who also writes along with Amir Naderi. Bahrani previously wrote (also with Naderi) and directed 99 Homes, which starred Shannon.

Here’s a description of Bradbury’s book from Amazon:

Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 is a masterwork of twentieth-century literature set in a bleak, dystopian future.

Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.

Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television.

When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. He starts hiding books in his home, and when his pilfering is discovered, the fireman has to run for his life.

Jordan is set to play Montag in HBO’s movie, while Shannon will play a fireman captain and Montag’s mentor named Beatty.

The movie is a return to HBO for Shannon, who starred in Terence Winter and Martin Scorsese’s excellent Prohibition era drama Boardwalk Empire for the network.

Frank Darabont, director of The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist and creator of The Walking Dead TV series, tried to adapt Fahrenheit 451 for many years, and had Tom Hanks attached to star at one point, but it never worked out.

[Source: Heat Vision]

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