Harlan Ellison's "Repent, Harlequin!" optioned for movie that hasn't been sued yet

By Sean O'Neal | February 19, 2014 | 8:42pm

Aux Features Film

With author and settlement collector Harlan Ellison deciding, on second thought, he would prefer there not be any legal document linking him to Justin Timberlake’s In Time, the tale Ellison once claimed it was based on can now be given a more formal adaptation. Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski has officially optioned the rights to “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said The Ticktockman,” Ellison’s 1965 short story set in a dystopian future where everyone’s time is strictly regulated by the government, rather than by what’s on TV, like we have now.

Deadline says Straczynski believes the story’s themes of rebellion—led by the whimsical Harlequin, whose pranks involve disruptions like showering people with jellybeans—have particular relevance in the age of Occupy Wall Street, when millions of buttered popcorn-flavored jellybeans spilled into New York City, demanding society no longer just throw them away. Straczynski will now move on to pursuing filmmakers like Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro, on his way to the inevitable lawsuit from Harlan Ellison.