Frank Darabont isn’t being dealt a lot of luck by the movie gods lately. First his apparently excellent script for Indiana Jones is ditched, then The Mist all but flops at the box office, despite being a chilling, effective horror. And now he’s lost his leading star for his version of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.
Talking to MTV , the director revealed that his first choice- and the reason the film was edging towards a greenlight – Tom Hanks had to drop out due to scheduling problems. Hanks would have played Montag a “fireman” in a dystopian future Earth where books are banned – and burned – by a culture-conscious totalitarian government.
“It needs to be somebody like Hanks who has the ability to trigger a greenlight but is also the right guy for the part,” sighed Darabont to the site. “It’s a narrow target. It’s a short list of people.” Here’s hoping he gets his star soon.
