He has also written for cinema, winning a screenwiting Oscar for The Social Network. Sorkin is probably best known as a TV screenwriter and director for series like The West Wing and The Newsroom. Sorkin’s version launched on Broadway in 2018 and had a sellout run until the COVID shutdowns. A 1962 film version directed by Robert Mulligan won three Oscars, including Best Actor for Gregory Peck, who played lawyer Atticus Finch. The story of a lawyer trying to prove Robinson’s innocence is an American classic and has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide. To Kill a Mockingbird is set in Alabama in 1934. Aaron Sorkin has dramatised the classic novel to put the focus on, and give a voice to, Tom Robinson, who is falsely accused of raping a white woman. Mayella’s hand hovers over the Bible, but doesn’t touch it, when she swears to tell the truth – because she knows she won’t.Ĭlassic Hollywood posts appear bimonthly on The Music Hall blog.A new production of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird as a play is now running in London as well as Broadway. Next time you see To Kill a Mockingbird, here are two things worth noting: Robert Duvall, who made his motion picture debut as Boo Radley, never speaks a word of dialogue and pay attention when Mayella Ewell (Tom Robinson’s accuser) is sworn in during the trial. Currently, Richard Thomas headlines the play’s 25-city national tour, and how’s this for a cool fact? Mary Badham has a supporting part as the nasty, morphine-addicted neighbor Mrs. Could Jeff Daniels escape Peck’s indelible shadow? Not entirely, but I loved Celia Keenan-Bolger’s Tony-winning turn as Scout. Having loved the book and movie, I was eager to see Aaron Sorkin’s version of Mockingbird on Broadway. Co-star Brock Peters, who played Atticus’ client Tom Robinson, was such a close friend, he delivered the eulogy at Peck’s funeral in 2003. Lee died eight months before Mockingbird premiered, but Harper gifted Peck with A.C.’s watch, which the actor carried in his tux pocket the night he won the Oscar. Atticus was modeled after Lee’s father, Alabama attorney A.C. Harper Lee and Peck also shared a special connection. He was such a role model, and I always wanted him to be proud of me.” ‘What ya doing, kiddo?’ If he was gonna be on the east coast, he’d say, ‘I’ll take you out to lunch.’ And whenever I was in California, I’d always go visit. Years later, the phone would ring, and he’d be on the other end of the line. In the book, Scout, Atticus & Boo by Mary McDonagh Murphy, Badham recalled: “Gregory Peck will always be Atticus. The father-child bond Peck and Badham created on screen was genuine they kept in touch throughout their lives. Badham mostly retired from acting to raise a family, though her brother John became a successful director, helming hits like Saturday Night Fever and War Games. Her natural performance earned an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress (she lost to fellow child star Patty Duke for The Miracle Worker ). I can’t even.)īadham was an unknown nine-year-old when she and her mother answered a “cattle call” audition in Birmingham, Alabama. (Sidebar: Can you imagine Rock Hudson as Atticus? Apparently, he lobbied for the part. Yet Foote’s masterful blueprint won an Academy Award, and was matched by the film’s flawless casting, from Gregory Peck’s Oscar-winning role as lawyer Atticus Finch, to Mary Badham’s portrayal of Finch’s daughter Scout. It had to have been a daunting task for Horton Foote to adapt Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning best seller into a critical and box-office success. But there are plenty of downsides: How can you turn a beloved novel into a film that fans of the original will accept, along with the moviegoers who simply want to be entertained? How do you capture the magic of the printed page on celluloid? Which parts do you cut and which do you keep? On the upside, the scriptwriter gets the benefits of an established story, characters and dialogue. As a writer, I’ve always marveled at people who adapt books for the screen.
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