Fahrenheit 451: Michael B Jordan and Michael Shannon burn books in this dystopian HBO film

Fahrenheit 451, an upcoming HBO film, is based on a dystopian world similar to the one in George Orwell’s 1984.

Books are important. They are a mark of civilised societies. Societies that burn books are considered authoritarian and/or primitive. Authoritarian regimes are actually characterised by the fact that they control the flow of information. Common people, also called the proletariat, are fed whatever they need to know to keep them docile. Knowledge is power, and despots know it. Rebels, who may be just dissenters, and who want to upset this order in the slightest way, are shown no mercy. George Orwell’s groundbreaking novel 1984 pictured in vivid detail what our world could become if the governments had unchecked power.

Fahrenheit 451, an upcoming HBO film, is based on a similar dystopian world. Books are illegal. The hero is a ‘fireman’, who starts fires instead of extinguishing them. Michael B Jordan stars as the primary character Guy Montag, and Michael Shannon plays his mentor, Captain Beatty. The film is written and directed by Ramin Bahrani from the 1953 book of the same name by Ray Bradbury. The book in the world of Fahrenheit 451 has become so rare that Michael Shannon’s character asks his student, “Have you seen a physical book before?”

“Do you want to know what’s inside? Insanity. Chaos,” he continues. The flamethrowers come out, and books are reduced to smouldering ash. For readers, this may even be a horror film. The film will inevitably rile up many in political quarters in the US who would point accusing fingers at each other, saying, “Oh it is you people the book is all about!”

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Here is the official synopsis of the film, “Fahrenheit 451 is based on Ray Bradbury’s classic novel. In a future where the media is an opiate, history is rewritten and “firemen” burn books, Jordan plays Guy Montag, a young fireman who struggles with his role as law enforcer and with his “mentor”, played by Shannon.”

There is no release date, but the film should broadcast on HBO in May.