To Kill A Mockingbird stage adaptation challenged by Harper Lee estate over 'racist' Atticus Finch

Aaron Sorkin’s forthcoming Broadway adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird could end up in court before it reaches the stage after a legal challenge from Harper Lee’s estate.

The Oscar-winning screenwriter of hits including The West Wing and The Social Network is accused of departing too far from Lee’s 1960 novel about race relations in the Deep South.

The argument centres on Sorkin’s portrayal of crusading lawyer Atticus Finch, who, in his interpretation, starts out as an apologist for racism to become “Atticus Finch by the end of the play”.

Lee’s lawyers claim this character arc is at odds with Finch’s purely heroic image in the book. Sorkin has responded that he is being true to Lee’s vision, citing her novel Go Set A Watchman, which was published in 2015 and is widely accepted as a first draft of Mockingbird. In it, Finch appears to express some racist views.

The lawsuit, filed against New York producer Scott Rudin’s theatre company, asks a judge to enforce an agreement that the play will not “depart in any manner from the spirit of the novel nor alter its characters”.

It says Tonja Carter, appointed by Lee to run her estate before her death in 2016, met Rudin to express “serious concerns about the script” but the meeting ended without a resolution.

The firm representing the theatre company, which paid $100,000 for the rights, says Sorkin’s script is “a faithful adaptation of a singular novel which has been crafted well within the constraints of the signed agreement”.

It said: “While we hope this gets resolved, if it does not, the suit will be vigorously defended.”

To Kill A Mockingbird won the Pulitzer Prize after its publication and has sold millions of copies around the world. In 1962 it was made into a film starring Gregory Peck, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Finch as a noble hero upholding the rule of law in a racist small town. The Broadway play is scheduled to begin previews on November 1 at the Lincoln Center Theater.