Tom Hanks to Star in 'Fahrenheit 451?'

I remember reading Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 back in high school, and while those years have slowly disappeared in a cloud of smoke, I vaguely remember liking it ... a lot. AICN is reporting this morning that Frank Darabont (the man assigned to both write and direct the big-screen adaptation of Fahrenheit 451) wants none other than Tom Hanks for the lead role. Now, the funniest thing about this whole thing is that Cinematical received the same tip -- from the same dude -- earlier this month. In his email, he claimed that his "stepson's dad is a senior Hollywood technical guy, whose buds are on Frank Darabont's The Mist." The tipster's email to us continued with: "They say FARENHEIT 451 is a go, and that Darabont has landed his GREEN MILE lead for the same here. Tom Hanks will be Guy Montag."

We know it's the same tipster because, in his email, he mentions the fact that he passed this along to Harry Knowles awhile ago, but Knowles never did anything with it. Well, today, the guys over at AICN finally pulled this one out of their closet. I came close to reporting on this before, but I'm always skeptical of tips when I don't know the person handing it over. So make of this what you will; perhaps AICN knows for a fact that this is official, and so they're finally posting it now. Either that, or they're just cycling through their old tips searching for new news. Regardless, Hanks seems like a good choice. If it goes down, he'll be playing the lead, Guy Montag; a "fireman" whose job it is to go around, burning books and the houses that store them, while prosecuting those who own them. The story is set in a warped kind of future where books have been completely replaced by interactive entertainment. When Montag begins to question a society that would want to destroy books, his life -- and the lives of those around him -- become threatened. We'll keep you posted when (and if) we hear more.