John Davis, in association with 20th Century Fox, has optioned the rights to The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury‘s collection of short science fiction stories.

The basic premise of the book is that Earth is well on its way to becoming all but uninhabitable, and the human species has come to the conclusion that they must colonize Mars. When they arrive many complications arise, including trying to make the red planet a new Earth, a worldwide nuclear war looming back on their home planet, and the differences between them and Mars’ native inhabitants.

One of the greatest authors ever to live and master of the fictional realms, Ray Bradbury is set to begin shopping around a new mini-series pitch to television networks. The plan is to make a six-hour, six-part series based on six of his classic short stories, and to get six different directors to construct them.

Bradbury, who is now 89-years-old, embarks on this new journey after an agreement was reached with the newbie movie company White Oak Films. If a network decides that they want to be a part of the project, negotiations will begin and directors will be scouted. Supposedly, the directors brought onto the project will get to choose their favorite Bradbury story to adapt into one of the segments.

For a decade now, Frank Darabont has been trying tirelessly to adapt the classic Ray Bradbury novel Fahrenheit 451 into a movie, with nothing but bad luck and fallen plans keeping the project in a deep hole. The closest it seemed to be to actually happening is when they were able to score Tom Hanks for the lead, but when he eventually exited the project, Fahrenheit disappeared from the radar for some time. Now comes word via Sci Fi Wire from the Saturn Awards that Darabont has a new actor in mind and that he’s determined — even in the face of death — to make this movie now.

Frank Darabont isn’t someone who makes movies in quick-succession, but when he does make them, they usually find high-praise. Most-notably, Darabont has written and directed the comparable Stephen King adaptations of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. He also wrote and directed the remake of The Mist, which was liked by many people, but not nearly at the level of his other King adaptations. Because of this uncanny ability to adapt a book into a successful movies, most have been itching to see his version of Bradbury’s tale of anarchy as the future America has completely collapsed and important works of literature — including the Bible — are illegal and burned. The main character is Guy Montag, a Fireman (someone who burns book) who eventually realizes what’s wrong with his society and starts to question his own life’s purpose.