How “Something Wicked” went from being a best seller to the big screen

Jim Hill

14 years ago

You know, it's kind of appropriate that D23 and ArcLight
Cinemas are kicking off their classic Disney movie series tonight with a
screening of "Something Wicked This Way Comes." Especially since this 1983 Walt
Disney Productions release is being shown at the ArcLight Hollywood.

"And what's so appropriate about that?," you ask. Well, this
dark fantasy really owes everything to Hollywood. I mean, I seriously doubt
that Ray Bradbury would have even written the 1962 best seller that this Disney
film was based on if Ray hadn't first been friends with screen song-and-dance
man Gene Kelly.

Bradbury flat-out thought that Kelly was a genius and
praised Gene's work in "Singin' in the Rain" to the skies. A few years later, Kelly
invited Bradbury to come see a work-in-progress version of his latest film, "Invitation to the Dance." And as Ray and his wife walked home from the screening that
night, Bradbury confessed how badly he wanted to work with Kelly on something
for the cinema.

Bradbury's wife then suggested that Ray go back through his
files. See if he could dig up an old story that might lend itself to
becoming a screenplay. So Bradbury went digging through his filing cabinets and
eventually found "The Black Ferris." Which was this 10 page story that dealt
with two young boys and a mysterious carnival that had come to town and had
originally been published in "Weird Tales" back in 1948.

Ray took this 10 page story and fleshed it out into a
80-page-long script treatment which he called "Dark Carnival." Bradbury
then handed off "Dark Carnival" to Kelly and asked for his opinion. Gene called
Ray the very next day and said that he thought the script was terrific. More
importantly, that Kelly wanted to make "Dark Carnival" his very next film. Which
is why Gene asked Ray's permission to take the treatment along with him to
Europe during the Summer of 1955 as Kelly sought out financial backing for the
film.

Bradbury gave Kelly his blessing and eagerly awaited his
return. Gene returned two months later with some disheartening news. Though
everyone he showed the material to agreed that "Dark Carnival" would make one
heck of a film, none of these financial backers were interested in underwriting
production of a new Gene Kelly movie where this legendary song-and-dance man
didn't sing or dance. So Gene reluctantly handed the treatment back to Ray, and
back into the files "Dark Carnival" went.

Okay. Now jump ahead to 1961. Bradbury is casting about
for an idea for a new novel when he realizes that he's got "Dark Carnival"
still sitting in his files. So Bradbury takes this 80-page-script treatment and turns it into a full-blown book, "Something Wicked This Way Comes." And to
honor Gene Kelly for the vital role that he played in the development of this
project, Bradbury dedicates this book to the screen legend.

And – of course – once "Something Wicked" becomes a best
seller, Hollywood comes calling. But Ray … he has some very specific ideas
about which filmmakers – more importantly, which studio – he'd like to have the
movie version of his latest book produced by. So Bradbury sent a copy of "Something
Wicked" to Walt Disney. Only to then get a note back from Walt saying that –
while he personally enjoyed the book – Disney doesn't feel that this dark
fantasy would be a good fit for his studio.

No matter. There are lots of other great movie makers out
there. Which is why Ray reached out to David Lean. Who also seemed intrigued but
ultimately passed on the project. Bradbury also had some definitive thoughts
about who he wanted to see play Mr. Dark, the ringmaster of the sinister carnival
that comes one Fall to Green Town, Illinois. Ray wanted Peter O'Toole or
Christopher Lee to play this role.

(L to R) Irwin Winkler, Sylvester
Stallone and Robert Chartoff at the
1976 Academy Awards. Copyright The Academy
of Motion Pictures
Arts and Sciences. All rights reserved

But given the way Hollywood works, Bradbury didn't really have
a whole lot of say about who was going to direct and/or star in the movie
version of "Something Wicked This Way Comes." So as the film rights for this
book bounced around Hollywood in the 1960s & 1970s it eventually wound up
in the hands of Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler (i.e. the producers of "Rocky"). Ray approached Robert and Irwin with a wish list. As in: Bradbury wanted Sam
Peckinpah (of "The Wild Bunch" and "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" fame)
to direct "Something Wicked." What's more, Ray suggested Academy Award-winner
Jason Robards (who would eventually play kindly Charles Halloway in the Disney
version of this book) for the role of sinister Mr. Dark.

Chartoff and Winkler ignored Bradbury's suggestions. As did
Kirk Douglas when he acquired the rights to the book in the mid-1970s for
$200,000. Feeling that he needed to break out of the virile leading man roles
that Kirk was typically cast in, Douglas bought "Something Wicked" with the
hope that he'd then be able to play against type. He wanted to play meek Charles Halloway, who
works at Green Town public library and is afraid that he's grown too old to
play with his son.

As you might expect, given Kirk Douglas' demeanor and physique, no one in
Hollywood thought that the movie-going public would ever buy a movie where this
action star appeared in a milquetoast role. So "Something Wicked" languished
yet again. Until Thomas Wilhite, an aggressive young man who had moved up from
Disney's publicity & marketing office
to become Hollywood's youngest production chief at that time, came calling. He insisted that Disney was now ready to tackle Bradbury's dark fantasy.

Mind you, this came at a time when Ron Miller (i.e. Walt's
son-in-law and – as of 1980 – the president of Walt Disney Productions) felt
that the Studio needed to get out of the rut that it was in at that time. Stop
making stupid sequels like "Herbie Goes Bananas" and "The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again." Which is why Miller put Whilhite in charge of the movie side of
the Mouse House and then ordered Tom to put some more ambitious motion pictures
in Disney's development and production pipeline.

And Whilhite – to his credit – did just that. Greenlighting
projects like "Never Cry Wolf" and "TRON." Not to mention acquiring the film
rights to promising literary projects like Gary Wolf's "Who Censored R. Rabbit?" And among the movies that were put into production at this time were "Something
Wicked This Way Comes."

And when it came to the production of this dark fantasy,
Disney really spared no expense. They actually pulled down the urban downtown
section of the Studio's backlot (where family comedies like "The Ugly Dachshund"
and "The Shaggy D.A.") so that they'd then have room to build a full-blown
version of Green Town. It took 200 men, three months and $2 million. But
eventually Disney's backlot resembled this small Illinois town.

And Bradbury … he was thrilled with the look of this Walt
Disney Production. In a Disney News interview from that time, Ray talked about
how happy tears ran down his face whenever he wandered through this film's set
which were so reminiscent of his own hometown.

Mind you, another reason that Bradbury may have been crying
was that – while he had hoped to convince Steven Spielberg to come direct "Something
Wicked" (Spielberg opted to make "Raiders of the Lost Ark" instead) – Disney hired
Jack Clayton, the director of "The Great Gatsby." Who then turned around and
hired John Mortimer, the English screenwriter of the "Brideshead Revisited" TV
miniseries, to come rewrite Ray's screenplay for this film.

This was particularly galling for Bradbury because … Well,
he and Clayton had worked on a previous version of "Something Wicked This Way
Comes." The one that Michael Eisner had almost greenlit while he was in charge at Paramount. And Ray had been so impressed with Jack's effort back then that – when
Disney came calling – Bradbury said that he'd only sell the movie rights to the
Mouse House if they'd sign Clayton to direct the movie.

Jack Clayton

Which (to be honest) was not something that Wilhite wanted
to do. He had wanted to hire one of Spielberg's contemporaries to come direct "Something
Wicked." But Ray wouldn't sell the film rights unless Jack was part of the
package. So Thomas reluctantly agreed.

The end result was a film that Clayton nor Bradbury were very happy with. Jack felt that his initial pass on "Something Wicked" was flawed because he had never done a special effects movie before. What's more, Clayton said that he didn't get the support from Disney that he needed during production because — while "Something Wicked" was shooting — all of Disney's very best special effects guys were tied up working on "TRON." Whereas Ray … He felt that the main problem with the movie version of "Something Wicked" was John Mortimer's screenplay. Which had eliminated much of the book's literary qualities and fantasy elements.

After a disastrous preview of this $17 million film in July
1982, Ron Miller called Ray Bradbury into his office and
asked for the author's help in overhauling this troubled production. Bradbury agreed – and $5
million and several months of reshoots later – the movie version of "Something
Wicked This Way Comes" was released to theaters in April of 1983.

To its credit, "Something Wicked" did receive fairly decent
reviews (Janet Maslin of the New York Times called it " … a lively,
entertaining tale combining boyishness and grown-up horror in equal measure." But the film performed poorly at the box office. Which is why Walt Disney
Productions was forced to take a $21 million write-down on the movie in July of
1983.

And if you talk with film historians today about "Something
Wicked This Way Comes," they'll either tell you about what's not in the movie anymore
(i.e. George Delerue's original score for this film. Which was dropped at Ray
Bradbury's insistence. Disney then tried to recruit Jerry Goldsmith to come
write a brand-new score for "Something Wicked." But Jerry was busy working on "Twilight Zone – The Movie." Which is why the Studio hired James Horner instead) or about
the elaborate CG sequence that got cut at the very last minute ( this sequence
was to have shown the arrival of the Dark Carnival, with shadows & fogs
forming the tents and trees bending to form the struts of the ferris wheel. But
this was back in late 1982 / early 1983. Which was basically still the infancy
of CG. And given that the rough CG featured here tended to take people out of
the picture at test screenings, Disney felt that they had no choice but to drop
this very-expensive-to-produce scene just weeks before "Something Wicked" was
released to theaters).

Mind you, other folks may point out "Something Wicked" 's flaws.
How – if you're really paying attention in both the spiders-in-the-bedroom and
the lost-in-the-mirror-maze scenes – it's obvious that these parts of the movie were shot long after filming
had initially wrapped in December of 1981. That the two boys playing Will
Halloway (Vidal Peterson) and Jim Nightshade (Shawn Carson) were so much taller
and the shapes of their faces had changed when they were called back to do those
reshoots in the Summer of 1982.

But me … What I like about "Something Wicked This Way Comes"
is the sheer ambition of this film. That Walt Disney Productions made a sincere
effort in the early 1980s to do something that wasn't a cookie cutter family
comedy. That they wanted to make a motion picture that had some literary style and heft.

Okay. So "Something Wicked" isn't perfect. Ray Bradbury
himself admits that. But at a screening of this film last year at the American
Cinematheque, he also said that – in the end – he's very proud of this movie.

Which is why I'm hoping that a great number of Disneyana
fans turn out for tonight's screening of "Something Wicked This Way Comes" at
the ArcLight Hollywood. If only so they can then see a truly rare piece of Mouse House history.

And – no – I'm not talking about the movie itself. But,
rather, the carousel that plays such a huge role in "Something Wicked." The one
that – depending on which direction it's running in – can either make you older
or younger.

Now before the special effects team at Walt Disney Studios
found this carousel and then lovingly restored it, it used to be one of the
attractions that entertained visitors who came by that tiny amusement park that Dave Bradley used to operate
at the corner of Beverly and La Cienega.

Now Bradley closed this park back in 1974. But back in the
1940s, Walt Disney used to take his daughters here. And as Diane and Sharon
rode that carousel, Walt sat back on a park bench and wondered if there might
be a better way to build & run an amusement park.

Newsreel image of the amusement park
at Beverly and La Cienega

You can see this carousel for yourself if you drop by the
ArcLight Hollywood tonight at the Cinerama Dome at 8 p.m. For further
information on the rest of the Disney Movie Magic! film series (including the
movies that will be screening at the ArcLight Sherman Oaks and the ArcLight
Pasadena), I suggest you swing on by the D23 website.