BIB_ID
317324
Accession number
MA 3659.59
Creator
Zanuck, Darryl Francis, 1902-1979.
Display Date
1950 May 3.
Credit line
Gift of Mr. Steinbeck, 1964.
Description
1 item (17 p.) ; 28 cm
Notes
Formally addressed to John Steinbeck and Elia Kazan, but the salutation reads "Dear John and Gadj."
Part of a large collection of letters, documents, memoranda, telegrams, clippings, printed matter and maps related to the film Viva Zapata!, which was produced by Twentieth Century-Fox in 1952.
Typed on Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation inter-office stationery, and with the typed signature "D.F.Z."
Part of a large collection of letters, documents, memoranda, telegrams, clippings, printed matter and maps related to the film Viva Zapata!, which was produced by Twentieth Century-Fox in 1952.
Typed on Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation inter-office stationery, and with the typed signature "D.F.Z."
Provenance
Gift of Mr. Steinbeck in 1964.
Summary
Concerning the script for the film Viva Zapata!, remarking that it is "exciting, dramatic, and enlightening" but that it will be expensive to produce and that not many pictures about Mexico have been financially successful. Noting that he likes the script because "it is a great story regardless of background or nationality" and suggesting that it be cast with unknown actors. Discussing five points at length: 1. on whether to use a Corrida singer as the narrator; 2. a confusing plot point in scene 162; 3. Zapata's search for a leader; 4. reinserting Zapata's premonition that he is about to die; and 5. the need to shorten the script by twenty pages. Followed by several precise edits, suggestions and queries regarding specific points in the script.
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