Title : Harper Lee's estate is suing over Aaron Sorkin's script for the stage version of "To Kill a Mockingbird."
link : Harper Lee's estate is suing over Aaron Sorkin's script for the stage version of "To Kill a Mockingbird."
Harper Lee's estate is suing over Aaron Sorkin's script for the stage version of "To Kill a Mockingbird."
The NYT reports.In a complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Alabama, the estate argued that Mr. Sorkin’s adaptation deviates too much from the novel, and violates a contract, between Ms. Lee and the producers, which stipulates that the characters and plot must remain faithful to the spirit of the book.It seems as though the question is whether they want a saccharine presentation that draws sentimentalists and children or something modestly challenging that draws a somewhat sophisticated crowd. Apparently the estate wants to preserve what is most memorable about the revered young-adult novel: a wise, beloved father figure. That's the golden goose of "Mockingbird." Kill it, and you've got nothing. But the Sorkin people think they've got something more contemporary than a white male hero. They'll inflate the role of the black maid... have Calpurnia catalyzing a transformation in crusty old racist Atticus.
A chief dispute in the complaint is the assertion that Mr. Sorkin’s portrayal of the much beloved Atticus Finch, the crusading lawyer who represents a black man unjustly accused of rape, presents him as a man who begins the drama as a naïve apologist for the racial status quo, a depiction at odds with his purely heroic image in the novel....
“I can’t and won’t present a play that feels like it was written in the year the book was written in terms of its racial politics: It wouldn’t be of interest,” [said the producer of the play, Scott Rudin]. “The world has changed since then.”...
Mr. Rudin said he was surprised by the estate’s criticism of Mr. Sorkin’s depiction of Atticus because [Tonja B. Carter, the lawyer Ms. Lee appointed to run her estate] had been instrumental in the 2015 publication of “Go Set a Watchman,” an early draft of “Mockingbird” that depicted an aged Atticus as a racist and segregationist....
The dispute erupted last fall when Ms. Carter saw a draft of the script, and was alarmed by what she viewed as liberties taken with the source material. The suit cites an interview Mr. Sorkin did last fall where he described how Atticus evolves over the course of the play, in part through his interactions with the Finch family’s black maid, Calpurnia, who has a much larger role in the drama....
In the interview Mr. Sorkin gave New York Magazine about his adaptation, he described his reinterpretation of Atticus’s moral evolution. “As far as Atticus and his virtue goes, this is a different take on ‘Mockingbird’ than Harper Lee’s or Horton Foote’s,” he said. “He becomes Atticus Finch by the end of the play.”
How is that not even creakier than the original story?
Carter says Sorkin has turned Atticus into someone who is “rude and selfish,” “more confrontational and far less dignified,” and "more like an edgy sitcom dad in the 21st Century than the iconic Atticus of the novel.” Meanwhile, Rudin's lawyer has as his hero, not Atticus Finch, but Aaron Sorkin:
“Aaron Sorkin is one of the leading writers in America. He would hardly be needed to write the play if the intent was to merely do a transcription of the novel on the stage. Presumably Ms. Lee was well aware that Mr. Sorkin would be bringing his perspective and talent to the play, and that the play would not be identical in all respects to the novel.”Why the hell did we hire Aaron Sorkin if were were going to follow the terms of the contract ("the Play shall not derogate or depart in any manner from the spirit of the Novel nor alter its characters"? Harper Lee must have known the meaning of the great Aaron Sorkin and intended him to imbue her Atticus Finch with present-day angst!
Thus articles Harper Lee's estate is suing over Aaron Sorkin's script for the stage version of "To Kill a Mockingbird."
that is all articles Harper Lee's estate is suing over Aaron Sorkin's script for the stage version of "To Kill a Mockingbird." This time, hopefully can provide benefits to all of you. Okay, see you in another article posting.
You now read the article Harper Lee's estate is suing over Aaron Sorkin's script for the stage version of "To Kill a Mockingbird." with the link address https://usainnew.blogspot.com/2018/03/harper-lees-estate-is-suing-over-aaron.html
0 Response to "Harper Lee's estate is suing over Aaron Sorkin's script for the stage version of "To Kill a Mockingbird.""
Post a Comment