Broadway's 'Mockingbird' play to go ahead after dispute settled

[May 11, 2018]  (Reuters) - The producer of a Broadway adaptation of Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" and the author's estate have settled a legal dispute over the Aaron Sorkin-penned script, which will allow the production to go head on schedule.

In a joint statement on Thursday, the production company Rudinplay and Lee's estate said they had "amicably settled ongoing litigation" following a court battle over the estate's objections that Oscar-winner Sorkin's script deviated too much from the 1960 novel about race relations in Depression-era U.S. South.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

The months-long dispute staved off a potential loss of millions of dollars for producers if the play had to be scrapped or delayed. It is due to open for previews on Nov. 1 in New York and will be directed by Tony-winner Bartlett Sher.

Lee died in 2016 at age 89.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" won a Pulitzer Prize and Gregory Peck earned an Academy Award for best actor in the 1962 film adaptation.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey in Los Angeles)

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