WITH STEPHEN SONDHEIM LYRICS: The Thing of It Is

Screenplay script dated September 1969 to title sheet, ‘Screenplay by William Goldman from his novel. Songs and other musical moments by Stephen Sondheim’. Bound to spine using 2 metal brads. 172 pp. a few manuscript corrections in an unknown hand with some additions to the text. Title on the rear edge of the script. In good condition. Sondheim’s lyrics for the proposed hit song appear early on in the screenplay and then repeatedly throughout as it is overheard during the action.

From the collection of Elliott Kastner (1930-2010), a larger-than-life film producer, whose best-known credits include Where Eagles Dare and The Long Goodbye. 

This original 1969 typed screenplay script of William Goldman’s adaptation of his 1967 novel The Thing Of It Is was slated to feature Robert Redford until Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid turned Redford turned into a major star who pulled out of the project. The film remained unmade and Goldman recounted the experience in his book Adventures in the Screen Trade.

2 copies located Uni Tulsa & Colorado and a copy in Sondheim’s archive