I.P. Drama, Media's Post-Hysteria Pivot, and The Notorious S.B.F.

Happy Wednesday, and thanks for reading The Daily Courant. Here's your afternoon look at what's new at Puck.

First up, Eriq Gardner uncovers a bombshell court document revealing how Harper Lee's estate has turned over the rights to her celebrated novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, to the heirs of the Hollywood machers behind the 1962 film—effectively laying the groundwork for a sequel. 2 Kill 2 Mockingbirds?

Plus, below the fold: Teddy Schleifer reveals how crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried is quietly building a political-philanthropic empire. Brian Morrissey examines the digital media universe's pivot away from doomscrolling and apocalypse porn. And make sure you're on the list for Dylan Byers and William D. Cohan's private emails, arriving in inboxes this evening.

A ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Movie Sequel?

Buried in an Alabama court document is a bombshell revelation: Harper Lee’s estate has granted the rights to her canonical novel to a group of descendants of the principals who made its 1962 Oscar-winning adaptation—all but paving the way for a future sequel one day.

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee’s 1960 story of an Alabama attorney defending a Black man charged with murder, is undoubtedly one of the most famous American literary creations. The novel also became a 1962 movie starring Gregory Peck that earned a best picture Oscar. So why is Lee’s estate now relinquishing its lucrative movie rights to the novel?  

Remarkably, the late author’s estate says it has granted rights in To Kill a Mockingbird to the descendants of producer Alan Pakula, director Robert Mulligan and Peck, who now jointly control the copyright to the story of Atticus Finch, and can authorize a filmed sequel or any derivative (prequel, remake, N.F.T., metaverse version, et cetera). That’s according to bombshell court documents that were quietly filed last Wednesday in an Alabama federal court. Tonja Carter, the attorney, spokesperson and trustee of the Lee estate, filed papers to confirm the outcome of a secret arbitration that commenced upon one of the most notorious literary episodes of this century.

Back in 2015, during the last days of Lee’s 89-year life, HarperCollins announced that an old manuscript called Go Set a Watchman had been discovered and would be published. Lee actually wrote this “sequel,” detailing Atticus Finch’s older years first, before Mockingbird, but she had shelved it for more than half a century. Few knew about its existence, and when it surfaced, some suspected that Carter had taken advantage of Lee, who was by then a frail, hearing- and sight-impaired stroke victim. A New York Times columnist called the publication of Watchman “one of the epic money grabs in the modern history of American publishing” ...

FOUR STORIES WE'RE TALKING ABOUT