Page 4 - RICHERT VS. SORKIN THEFT OF THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT AND THE WEST WING

Twelve years later, following the success of WINTER KILLS and SUCCESS, William Richert conceived the story of an isolated President, an introspective President; a man who lost his wife to illness, now living alone with a young son in the White House.
Central question: what kind of courtship would the most powerful man on earth have with a willful woman, one who is not impressed with power or politics with a mind of her own. What power would he have over his own love? How would he romance her from behind a phalanx of guards and a world full of watchers?
When Disney said go to script, he hired a young screenwriter, Kyle Morris,and together they wrote THE PRESIDENT ELOPES, a full length original screenplay that became the basis for all the future revisions and drafts, by some of Hollywood's top writers, ending with Aaron Sorkin's rewrite for producer Robert Redford and director Rob Reiner.