To Kill a Mockingbird coming to Broadway as Aaron Sorkin has been selected to adapt the Harper Lee classic   

  • The American classic To Kill a Mockingbird will premiere on Broadway during the 2017-18 theater season
  • Producer Scott Rudin obtained the rights to the novel which was written by Harper Lee and released in 1960 
  • Rudin, who has won multiple Tonys over his career and two last year for Best Play and Best revival of a Play, spent two years trying to get the rights
  • He has tapped Oscar winner Aaron Sorkin to adapt the book for the stage 

By Chris Spargo For Dailymail.com

Published: 09:10 EST, 10 February 2016 | Updated: 09:59 EST, 10 February 2016

To Kill a Mockingbird is set to hit the Broadway stage.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning American classic, which was written by Harper Lee and released in 1960, will be appearing on Broadway for the very first time and is expected to premiere during the 2017-18 theater season.

The rights for the stage adaptation were acquired by Tony and Oscar-winning Producer Scott Rudin who has tapped a fellow Oscar winner to adapt the novel - Aaron Sorkin.

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Aaron Sorkin
Harper Lee

Big announcement: Aaron Sorkin (left last week in LA) will adapt Harper Lee's (right in 2011) To Kill a Mockingbird for the Broadway stage

Big name: Producer Scott Rudin (above with Amy Pascal in 2011) obtained the rights to the novel which was released in 1960

Big name: Producer Scott Rudin (above with Amy Pascal in 2011) obtained the rights to the novel which was released in 1960

'To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the most revered pieces of 20th century American literature,' Sorkin said in an interview with The New York 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.'

It is not the first time the book will be making the leap to the stage, with a 1991 production at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse being the first time the book was adapted and more recently a version premiering at  London's Barbican Theatre in 2013 with actor Robert Sean Leonard taking on the role of Atticus Finch. 

The character of Finch has become mired in controversy ever since Lee's second novel, Go Set a Watchmen, was released last year 55 years after her debut.

In that story Finch, who was the moral center of Mockingbird as he defended a young black man against false rape charges, had become a bigot who was opposed to racial integration in the South.

'The Atticus we do is going to be the Atticus in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,' said Rudin. 

'He’s one of the greatest characters ever created in American literature.'

Also making the character a difficult one to adapt for the stage will be the fact that Gregory Peck is considered by many to have given one of the all-time great screen performances when he played the trial lawyer and single father in the 1962 film version.

Classic: The 1962 film version of the book won an Oscar for Gregory Peck (above with Mary Badham) for his portrayal of Atticus Finch 

Classic: The 1962 film version of the book won an Oscar for Gregory Peck (above with Mary Badham) for his portrayal of Atticus Finch 

Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird

Premiere: The will be the first time that Lee (left in 1960) has allowed her novel (right) to be staged on Broadway

Peck won an Oscar for his role and the film also won the award for Best Adapted Screenplay. 

Rudin - who as a producer won Tony Awards last year for Best Play (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) and Best Revival of a Play (Skylight) - said he spent two years trying to get the rights before Lee, 89, finally accepted his offer.

'While Nelle had always had misgivings about anyone who might want to bring To Kill a Mockingbird to Broadway - and there have been many approaches over the years - she finally decided that Scott would be the right person to embrace this,' said her agent, Andrew Nurnberg.

And while it seems unlikely the the notoriously reclusive Lee would make the trip up to New York City to see the play, she can still catch one stage version as her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama will once again be putting on the play as it has done ever year for the past 26 years.

As for Rudin, this is the second big production he has in the works for next year as it was also recently announced he would be producing a stage adaptation of the Bill Murray film Groundhog Day. 

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