[Lee, Harper]

Foote, Horton.  To Kill a Mockingbird.  First Draft Screenplay.  Universal City, Ca.: Universal-International Pictures, 3 October 1961



Multigraphed screenplay, 158 pages (rectos only) (11 1/8 x 8 5/8 in.; 283 x 218 mm), 3-holes perferated in left margin.  Original green multigraphed covers, 3 metal clasps; some light soiling to front cover. 

Condition as described in catalogue entry.
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Horton Foote's first draft of his screenplay adaptation of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.  This was the version used by the actors in the early stages of casting for the film.  It is longer than the final shooting script and includes a character cut from the film.

The present copy was used by Draper Shreeve, a young actor from Nashville, who was brought to New York in December 1961 to read for the role of Dill, opposite Mary Badham (Scout) and Philip Alford (Jem) and to meet producer Alan J. Pakula and director Robert Mulligan.  After a month's deliberation at Paramount, it was decided that Shreeve was too young for the role.  The part was eventually given to John Megna, who was then starring in A Death in the Family on Broadway.  

To Kill a Mockingbird  was Horton Foote's first major screen adaptation and won him an Academy Award in 1962.  Gregory Peck was was also honored with an Oscar as was the film's Art Direction.  In all the film was nominated for eight Academy Awards and  was a tremendous commerical success. Foote's screenplay even pleased the author of the novel, Harper Lee, who wrote, "If the integrity of a film adaptation is measured by the degree to which the novelist's intent is preserved, Mr. Foote's screenplay should be studied as a classic."

The final version of the screenplay was published by Horton Foote in Three Screenplays (1989).  Copies of the first draft screenplay, however, are very rare.  Included with the lot is a copy of Draper Shreeve's remembrances of his audition for the role of Dill in December 1961.