Page 35 - RICHERT VS. SORKIN THEFT OF THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT AND THE WEST WING

October 31,1995
DELTVERED BYHAND
PAGE 1 of 2
Mr. Alan Horn
Castle Rock Entertainment
335 North Maple Drive Suite 135 Beverly Hills CA 90210
Dear Alan, '
;
I'm writing informally to you in an effort to forestall an ugly progression of events. Maybe you remember me from years ago, when Claire Townsend was my partner and we met several times. You were working with Norman Lear.
What a bunch of idealists we were then. At least it seems so now, in light of the mendacious fieatment my work has received at the hands of Castle Rock, and the knave writer Aaron Sorkin, who has almost successfully absconded with my righfful credit on "The President Elopes" (aka "An American President").
Sorkin was given-sole c-redit 9n my original sgree,qplay because he and his lawyer misrepresented the facts, or, in the old fashioned sense, lied to the WGA. Sorkin testified that liis new vbrsion of my original screenplay was invented by himself alone, with Rob Reiner as his partner. He clairired thdt !nt{-tqt year he_had no knowledge of my earlier screenplays, the re-writes by other writers, or Robert Redford's remembered scenes from my script.
Sorkin claimed this in spite of abundant evidence and industry awareness that he did in fact know the story that l-wrote, and that Rob Reiner did in fact read at least one of my many versions of it that were written under the watchful qV_9-9,f Bqlqu Maltby. Sorkin said this alihougli he was certainly awiue 1[at fast]g Ro* paid Eiye= Milliorl,US- Dollars to acquire the rights to "Tle President Elop6s'i (aka "An American President" ) from Redford's Wildwood/Universal.
This was information I was denied. If someone paid the highest industry record price for a screenplay, and it was mine, isn't it fair that I be told about ii and be compensated? And if nol, why not?
I am not the only one ama?ed by this turn of events. Barbara Maltby read to me an article that she's written for the December 1995 issue of TIIE AMERICAN SCHOLAII. In it, she tells the truth (btess her) about the involvement of Redford and Reiner in the evolution of my script. Maltby'i left H-ollywood.now_and is studying-medical ethics at an eastern college --- partly-becauie of sheninigans like Sorkin's. Maltby also wonders why she- was paid six figures and riceived a producing credit on "An Arnerican hesident" when she only worked on development of "The Presideni Elopes"I
Rob Reiner, in a HOLLYWOOD REPORTER interview on October 19,1995 is quoted saying he first heard the whole story_from (Robert) Redford at lunch in 1989, which flatly-contradiltsSorkin's testimony that he and Reiner made the story up together. Reiner has also said-that he never read t}re version of "The President Elopes" (aka "An American President") that Redford gave him. This puts Reiner in the special category of "The Directors Who Don't Read Scripts From Bo5" --- if it's true. And it's not, according to Barbara Maltby's AMERICAN SCHOLAR article.
My- screenP_lay, which your company has so beautifully produced, was above all about candor and truth. The hesident's final realization that he must hoioi personal truth before he can demand it of the world, and thereby get tlg girl and save his elected offiie, is a lesson worth learning. Our movie has always been a kind of fable, and it was hoped by Redford, Maltby and myself that iimight offer a restorative view of the Presidency as well as a shining kind of romanie .
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