Aaron Sorkin to Adapt ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ for Broadway

Aaron Sorkin will write a new stage adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird” for a Broadway run during the 2017-18 season. Bartlett Sher has signed on to direct the show, produced by Scott Rudin.

Sorkin and Rudin have worked together previously on the films “Steve Jobs,” currently up for acting Oscars for Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet, and “The Social Network.” Sher directed the current Broadway revivals of “The King and I” and “Fiddler on the Roof,” and won a Tony for his 2008 staging of “South Pacific.”

One of the most familiar titles in the American literary canon, Harper Lee’s 1960 novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” centers on the lawyer Atticus Finch and his two children, their mysterious neighbor Boo Radley, and a racially charged trial in which Finch is the defense attorney. The novel, set in 1930s Alabama, has spawned a well-known 1962 film version starring Gregory Peck as well as prior stage adaptations.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” made the news last year when “Go Set a Watchman,” a related novel Lee wrote before “Mockingbird,” was published and cast some of the events portrayed in “Mockingbird” in a surprising light.

For the Broadway version of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” casting, theater and exact dates have yet to be set.

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