Monsterpal wrote:
It seems to me that Ray originally wrote SOMETHING WICKED as a screenplay, but couldn't get it made so he turned it into a novel. It was made into a movie quite a few years later, of course, but does anyone else remember reading or hearing about the genesis of the book?
Not only have I heard that same story, I've posted it in a couple of topics on this board, ones I guess you don't frequent.  One apparently now lost Bradbury TV episode was one in the 1950s also based on "Black Ferris," though in the show, the de-aging/aging machine was a merry-go-round.  I only knew of it when some school kids talked in amazed tones about the TV show they saw last night in which a guy rode a merry-go-round that made him younger when it went backward. 
   A director who approached Bradbury to film SOMETHING WICKED was Sam Peckinpah, who vowed to cram the book into the camera.