Aaron Sorkin Reveals Surprising Changes in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

Harper Lee's classic Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill A Mockingbird will officially arrive on Broadway next winter in a new stage adaptation written by Academy Award winner Aaron Sorkin and directed by Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher. A new ad lists the show's opening date as December 13, 2018.

In an interview with Vulture, Sorkin revealed how his adaptation will have a new take on the material, especially with Atticus Finch, who is well-known for his morals. Sorkin explained, "He becomes Atticus Finch by the end of the play, and while he's going along, he has a kind of running argument with Calpurnia, the housekeeper, which is a much bigger role in the play I just wrote. He is in denial about his neighbors and his friends and the world around him, that it is as racist as it is, that a Maycomb County jury could possibly put Tom Robinson in jail when it's so obvious what happened here. He becomes an apologist for these people."

Sorkin also revealed after the events in Charlottesville, he knew that this new take was perfect for today's society: "All of a sudden, Donald Trump stood up at a news conference and said there are good people on both sides. And I went, 'Wow, bingo. We hit it right in the middle.'"

Published in 1960, Harper Lee's debut novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" was an immediate and astonishing success, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and publishing in ten languages within a year of its release. The book, considered one of the great classics of modern American literature, went on to become a global phenomenon, with more than 50 million copies in print to date. "To Kill a Mockingbird" has moved international readers for half a century, with editions published in over 40 languages including Persian, Dutch, Norwegian, Russian, Vietnamese, Armenian, Chinese, and Esperanto.

Based on an event that occurred near her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama in the 1930s, Lee's story of racial injustice and the destruction of childhood innocence centers on small-town lawyer and single father Atticus Finch (modeled after Lee's father, attorney Amasa Lee), his young daughter Scout, her older brother Jem, and their mysterious neighbor, the reclusive Arthur "Boo" Radley. Written during the early stages of the Civil Rights Movement-at a time when Jim Crow laws were still in effect in many Southern states-Lee's novel held a mirror to the culture of racism of the Deep South.

Aaron Sorkin's plays include A Few Good Men and The Farnsworth Invention. A winner of the Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, the Writers Guild Award, and a BAFTA Award for his screenplay for The Social Network, Sorkin's other films include Steve Jobs (Golden Globe Award, BAFTA Award nomination), Moneyball (Academy Award and BAFTA Award nominations, Broadcast Film Critics Association Award), The American President (Golden Globe Award nomination), and the screen adaptation of A Few Good Men (Golden Globe Award nomination). In addition to the long-running series "The West Wing," for which he won four Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, two Humanitas Prizes, and a Writers Guild Award, he created the series "Sports Night" (Humanitas Prize, Writers Guild Award, Emmy Award nomination), "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," and "The Newsroom" (Golden Globe Award nomination).