THE FRONT RUNNER (Screenplay)

Los Angeles, 1975. Screenplay, Second Draft. Hardcover. Very Good. Screenplay, second draft dated August 1, 1975, based on the novel of the same title by Patricia Nell Warren published by William Morrow in 1974. Written by Larner, winner of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Candidate and commissioned by actor Paul Newman, who was the first of many over the last 40 years who owned the screen rights. A controversial novel in its days - the story is of an All-American coach who falls in love with a young track star in his training - it was the first gay-themed novel to make The New York Times' bestseller list, and since then has become emblematic of the romantic headiness of the 70s gay liberation that gave way to the crushing realities of the AIDS epidemic a decade later. After Newman's option expired, the novel rights changed hands multiple times (they have now reverted to author Warren after a legal dispute was recently settled out of court), and at some point a film version was in pre-production but eluded financing, making the story one of Hollywood's most celebrated unproduced screenplays. Indeed, until Brokeback Mountain, the story always held the promise of being the first major-studio production to bring a gay love story to mainstream cinema. (Newman's interest in the story also fueled much speculation that if Newman were to take the leading role he would be the first really major Hollywood star to play a homosexual character.) This is probably Hollywood's best example of an unproduced screenplay that was ahead of its time; certainly, the best example of that of the gay genre. This copy is the only screen treatment of the novel we are aware of and the only copy of it that we know of that has been brought to the open market. The screenplay is rarer still in that Larner had only two movies produced of his screenwriting: Drive He Said, on which he collaborated with Jack Nicholson (who directed) based on Larner's own 1971 novel; and, in 1972, The Candidate, which was based on his personal experience with the Eugene McCarthy presidential campaign of 1968. Since screenwriting, Larner has turned to speechwriting and poetry, and by some reports is currently finishing a novel based on his Hollywood experience and his memoirs. In United Artists wrapper scuffed and worn about edges, typed title label sticker over spine mostly perished, three brads, internals near fine.