One of the most cherished novels in literature is heading to Broadway—and the man hired to adapt it to the stage is none other than Aaron Sorkin.
The scriptwriter behind Steve Jobs and The Social Network will be working with long-time producing partner Scott Rudin to bring Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird to Broadway in time for the 2017-2018 season, reported the New York Times.
“To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the most revered pieces of 20th century American literature,” Sorkin told the Times. “It lives a little bit differently in everybody’s imagination in the way a great novel ought to, and then along I come. I’m not the equal of Harper Lee. No one is.”
First published in 1960, Lee’s story of a lawyer who defends an accused black man has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. It was later adapted into a film that won three Academy Awards, including a Best Actor trophy for Gregory Peck, who played the novel’s lawyer and beloved centerpiece, Atticus Finch.
The decision on who would play Finch for the Broadway version has yet to be made, said Rudin. He added that the stage adaptation would not draw from Lee’s controversial second novel Go Set a Watchman, which was released last year to dismay over its racist portrayal of Finch.
“The Atticus we do is going to be the Atticus in To Kill a Mockingbird,” said Rudin.
