Our first look at the highly anticipated new adaptation of the classic Ray Bradbury novel Fahrenheit 451 has arrived, and it’s blazing hot. While Francois Truffaut previously adapted the material into a film (to mixed results) in 1966, a modern adaptation has been in the works for over a decade. At one point Mel Gibson was trying to bring the story to the screen, but it’s now actually happening at HBO with a somewhat uncharacteristically star-studded iteration.

Michael B. Jordan stars as Montag, a young fireman who forsakes his world, battles his mentor, and struggles to regain his humanity in a dystopian future where history is outlawed and “firemen” burn books. Michael Shannon co-stars as Beatty, Montag’s mentor, and both are seen here in this excellent debut image revealed by Jordan on Instagram.

Ramin Bahrani, the director behind the terrific drama 99 Homes, is directing this new adaptation and co-wrote the screenplay with Amir Naderi. Bradbury’s book endures today as a harrowing work of science-fiction, and one can’t help but think it has an added sense of relevance in our current climate.

Check out the first Fahrenheit 451 image below. The film will debut on HBO either late this year or sometime in 2018. The cast also includes Sofia BoutellaLilly Singh, and Laura Harrier.

In this world, the firemen start fires! #Fahrenheit451 is coming to @HBO A post shared by Michael B. Jordan (@michaelbjordan) on

Here’s the synopsis for Bradbury’s book:

Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.

Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television.

When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. He starts hiding books in his home, and when his pilfering is discovered, the fireman has to run for his life.

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Image via XLrator Media