You are viewing the archive: “TO Kill A Mockingbird”

‘Mockingbird’ Writer Harper Lee Sues To Regain Pulitzer-Winning Novel’s Copyright

By ERIK PEDERSEN | Saturday May 4, 2013 @ 6:00am PDTTags: Harper Lee, TO Kill A Mockingbird

One of American literature’s greatest courtroom dramas is generating some legal theater of its own. To Kill A Mockingbird author Harper Lee is suing her former lit agent’s son-in-law, Samuel Pinkus, and companies he allegedly started for failing to protect the Pulitzer-winning novel’s copyright. Lee, 87, alleges that Pinkus took advantage of her failing eyesight and hearing and assigned the copyright to himself and a firm he operated after his father-in-law, Eugene Winick — who had repped Lee since the book’s publication in 1960 — became ill 10 years ago. The author, who lives in rural Alabama, filed suit in Manhattan federal court and is seeking return of the copyright and unspecified damages. The 1962 movie adaptation of Mockingbird was nominated for Best Picture and seven other Academy Awards and won three, To Kill A Mockingbird, Gregory Peck, Harper Leeincluding Best Actor for Gregory Peck’s legendary performance as Atticus Finch. The lawyer who becomes a pariah in his small Southern town as defends a black man accused of raping a white woman was hailed by the AFI in 2003 as the greatest film hero of all time. Last year President Obama introduced the film before a 50th anniversary screening at the White House.

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Trayvon Martin Case Arrest Ignites Academy’s ‘Mockingbird’ 50th Anniversary Screening

By PETE HAMMOND | Thursday April 12, 2012 @ 4:57pm PDTTags: George Zimmerman, Gregory Peck, TO Kill A Mockingbird, Trayvon Martin, Universal
Pete Hammond

“What are the chances that this day in Florida George Zimmerman would be arrested? What are  the chances that we sit in Beverly Hills on this day to see To Kill A Mockingbird,  and these kinds of tensions still exist … Read More »

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AFI to Screen ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ At The White House Thursday Night

By PETE HAMMOND | Wednesday April 4, 2012 @ 12:00pm PDTTags: AFI, Gregory Peck, President Obama, TO Kill A Mockingbird, White House
Pete Hammond

The 50th Anniversary celebration of the Academy Award winning 1962 classic, To Kill A Mockingbird just got a very high profile addition with the American Film Institute’s announcement today that the film will be screened tomorrow night, April 5,  at the White … Read More »

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President Obama Will Offer Intro For Cable Showing Of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday April 3, 2012 @ 11:37am PDTTags: Barack Obama, TO Kill A Mockingbird, Universal Pictures, USA Network

The president will make his comments for USA Network’s broadcast of the iconic film about racial tolerance on April 7. It’s the first time Mockingbird will be nationally shown after being digitally remastered and restored, and marks the film’s 50th aniversary. … Read More »

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Universal Launches Year-Long Centennial Celebration; Announces Major Restoration Of 13 Classics

By PETE HAMMOND | Tuesday January 10, 2012 @ 12:01am PSTTags: Centennial, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Jaws, Ron Meyer, TO Kill A Mockingbird, Universal Studios
Pete Hammond

Universal this month is launching a yearlong 2012 centennial celebration with an ambitious and almost unprecedented film-restoration effort, a new logo, a swarm of special-edition Blu-ray movie packages, theme park celebrations emphasizing their film history, special events, premieres, and a major social media campaign. Like Paramount, which is also embarking on a centennial celebration, the emphasis here is making the old seem new again. Key among Universal’s plans is the complete restoration of 13 films that showcase a large part of the history of the studio — from 1930′s All Quiet On The Western Front to 1993′s Schindler’s List.

When I spoke with Universal president and COO Ron Meyer on Monday morning, his excitement about this opportunity to mark the studio’s storied past and take it into the future was evident. “One hundred years is such a great milestone,” he said. “I am a movie lover. It’s such an important part of the American culture, a part of the heritage of this country. I think we have a responsibility  to our employees, to the public to celebrate not just a milestone but celebrate the movie business, and this gives us a reason to do it.” He emphasized the centerpiece of this yearlong effort: the restoration of many Universal classics each uniquely repping their own decades.

Films chosen to get the full restoration treatment — in addition to the aforementioned All’s Quiet and Schindler’s List — are  both 1931 versions of Dracula, Frankenstein (1931),  The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Abbott and Costello’s Buck Privates (1941), Pillow Talk (1959), To Kill A Mockingbird (1962), The Birds (1963), The Sting (1973), Jaws (1975), and Out of Africa (1985). That’s actually 12 titles altogether, but there are 13 films since the studio is restoring both 1931 versions of Dracula — including Bela Lugosi’s famous English-language picture and the Spanish version that was filmed on the same sets at night. Pillow Talk repping the ’50s was one of Universal’s biggest hits ever to that time, earning an Original Screenplay Oscar and Doris Day’s only Oscar nomination. It seems an interesting and  inspired choice to me, and to Meyer. “What a great movie,” he said. “I have four children who don’t know these movies. They don’t know a Doris Day movie or Rock Hudson movies. And they are going to enjoy them when they see them. Once they see it they can appreciate it. There’s no way for even 30-year olds to know some of those movies unless they are film buffs.” Read More »

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