Michael O’Kelly unveils his feature-length documentary Live Forever – The Ray Bradbury Odyssey on November 11 in his home town, Ventura, CA.
Joe Mantegna narrates the chronicle of Bradbury’s life, along with Malcolm McDowell. The documentary covers, among other topics, his 70-year writing career and his work with Walt Disney. Other actors and close friends of Bradbury who make contributions to the film include Malcolm McDowell, Edward James Olmos, Roy Disney, Hugh Hefner, Clifton Collins, Dennis Franz, Selah Willms, Devin Kelly, and features the debut film appearance of 13-year old Zachary Meade as Young Ray Bradbury.
The film had its origins in the O’Kelly family’s friendship with Bradbury:
“It’s an intimate view inside a writer’s mind,” said Michael O’Kelly, 62, who first met Bradbury at his Los Angeles home about seven years ago after a mutual friend introduced them.
“We hit it off. There’s a 30-year age difference between us but we grew up on the same books by Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs and H.G. Wells. We just became friends.”
O’Kelly worked with Bradbury on smaller projects after that, such as local film festivals, book signings and theater events. One day about five years ago, O’Kelly and his son were at Bradbury’s house when Devin, then 11, interviewed Bradbury for a school project. That became a DVD that O’Kelly showed at some film festivals and inspired O’Kelly to create his first full-length documentary film about the famed writer.
The benefit premiere take places on Sunday, November 11 from 4-6 p.m. at the Century 10 Theatre, 555 E. Main Street in Downtown Ventura. There will be a Q&A with the filmmaker and special guests prior to the film. For ticket information, click here.
Live Forever – The Ray Bradbury Odyssey will be submitted to major film festivals and marketed for television next year. The filmmakers also plan to submit it for consideration for an Academy Award in the documentary category, O’Kelly said.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian for the story.]
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That this is premiering so soon after Mr. Bradbury’s death, and the deaths in recent years of such advocates of life extension and “living forever” as Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, and Robert C. W. Ettinger, and the deaths noted right here in File 770 of so many in their fifties and sixties just make it that much more obvious that our time is short and the years are not long, and the evil days come regardless.
As writer and director of this movie and a close friend of Ray I just want people to know that Ray lived a long life filled with love and that he was passionate about this project and he will live forever, himself the ultimate metaphor.