Harper Lee Estate Files Lawsuit Over Upcoming Broadway Adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird

Tonja B. Carter, a representative for the estate of the late author Harper Lee, has sued producers of the new stage adaptation of Lee's Pulitzer-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, according to The New York Times. Carter filed a complaint on behalf of the estate in Alabama federal court on March 13. To Kill a Mockingbird is co-produced by Scott Rudin and Lincoln Center Theater.

"The lawsuit states that the play should not deviate from the depiction of Atticus [Finch] in Mockingbird, where he is presented as a defender of racial equality in a divided south," writes the Times, quoting the suit itself: "Based on Ms. Lee's own father, a small-town Alabama lawyer who represented black defendants in a criminal trial, Atticus Finch is portrayed in the novel as a model of wisdom, integrity and professionalism."

Penned by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Bartlett Sher, Broadway's To Kill a Mockingbird will star Jeff Daniels in the role of Atticus. In a March interview on Live with Kelly & Ryan, Daniels said of Sorkin's adaptation, "We're gonna do what we think it is," commenting that the Broadway take on To Kill a Mockingbird will go "a little deeper" than the novel.  

The stage adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird comes 56 years after an acclaimed film version penned by Horton Foote, directed by Robert Mulligan and starring Gregory Peck as Atticus. Broadway's To Kill a Mockingbird is slated to begin previews on November 1 with an opening scheduled for December 13.