10 Reading Harper Lee to attend. Their friendship didn’t turn sour because he did not acknowl- edge her contributions to the book, but because, for the last 12 or 15 years of his life, he “seemed hell-bent on destroying everyone who had ever loved him.” She watched Capote destroy himself and others, espe- cially Jack Dunphy (whom Nelle Harper liked and admired) with his addiction to alcohol and drugs. She wrote to Claudia Johnson at one time that maybe he wasn’t Dill after all. The Making of the Film To Kill a Mockingbird By the early 1960s, with money from To Kill a Mockingbird pouring in, Alice Lee, her older sister, one of the first women lawyers in Alabama, who settled in her father’s firm in Monroeville, became her life-long busi- ness manager. After the publication of Nelle Harper’s novel, Annie Laurie Williams (wife of Maurice Crain, Nelle Harper’s literary agent) became Nelle Harp- er’s agent for the movie rights of To Kill a Mockingbird. Producer Alan Pak- ula and director Bob Mulligan formed a company to make the film. In January of 1961, the deal was closed. Eventually Universal Studios became involved and Nelle Harper was offered the job of writing the screenplay. She declined, realizing that she did not have the experience or interest in film writing. The job fell to Horton Foote. The movie industry’s interest soared when Gregory Peck enthusiastically agreed to take the part of Atticus. Peck visited Nelle Harper in Monroeville in January of 1962, and she visited the set in Los Angeles for the first time as the production was about to begin, becoming close life-long friends with the Peck family. The original idea of filming in Monroeville fell through when it was determined that the little town had changed dramatically since the 1930s: many of the old buildings and trees were gone the streets were paved in short, there was nothing of the old character left. By moving condemned houses onto the set, the look the filmmakers wanted was achieved and, by the way, at tremendous savings to the company. Nelle Harper got to know most of the other actors. Nine-year-old Mary Badham who played Scout and 13-year-old Phillip Alford who played Jem were Birmingham, Alabama, natives, chosen for their roles after audition- ing in Birmingham. Dill was played by nine-year-old John Megna. Although Phillip and John, like typical young boys, had little use at the time for their female counterpart, the dynamics of the group were overall positive, except for the actor James Anderson, playing Bob Ewell, who had a reputation for bad behavior. Brock Peters had an immense influence
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