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Alan Rickman's personal bound scripts, handwritten notes, personal research, hand-sketched storyboards and additional production ephemera from the production of Rickman's period drama A Little Chaos. This lot comes from the personal archive of the late Alan Rickman.
The film was Rickman's second and final directing role, following The Winter Guest in 1997. In addition to directing, Rickman co-wrote the screenplay and starred as King Louis XIV.
The lot comprises eight copies of the script in various draft forms, including Rickman's personal production script, which is heavily annotated, highlighted, and features several hand-drawn sketches by Rickman; additional revised script pages (some annotated by Rickman); four research books on the historical period; several pages with storyboards sketched by Rickman; Rickman's technical recce pack; various cards and letters, addressed to Rickman, wishing him luck for the film, or thanking and praising him for his conduct on the production; personal and professional correspondence, some dating from the early 2000s, giving notes on Rickman's script; 73 location research photographs of the Palace of Versailles and its gardens; two notesbooks with handwritten research and character notes; a VHS tape labelled "Le Notre"; Rickman's tickets and handwritten introductory notes from the film's premiere at the Toronto Film Festival; and additional production ephemera, including shooting schedules, potential cast lists and more.
Estimate: £3,000 - 6,000 M
Equally at home on stage or screen, Alan Rickman was a major star, despite entering his profession late. After working in graphic design, his first theatrical engagement after graduating from RADA in 1974 was at the Library Theatre, Manchester, where, aged 28, he was contracted for a season of underwhelming plays.
Steady work followed, but an unhappy season with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1978 led Rickman to question his future. But after appearances at the Bush, London's pre-eminent fringe theatre of the time, in 1981, he found his spiritual home: the Royal Court Theatre. Rickman appeared in several shows, which established him as a leading man, but also provided him with the rehearsal technique - his "process" - which he would use in the preparation of every role he played. He returned to the RSC in 1985 to play the Vicomte de Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, first in Stratford, then the West End and finally Broadway, establishing him as a theatrical star.
Rickman's commitment to theatre meant that he did not make his theatrical film debut until 1988, but what a debut it was. Die Hard was an instant classic, with Rickman elevating a character who could have been the standard Euro-villain into a Hollywood Hall of Fame psychopath, Hans Gruber. Rickman became an overnight star at the age of forty-two, and three years later, he cemented his place in Hollywood with his film-stealing performance in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
He set about putting his fame to work for him, enabling "difficult" projects to get funding, as well as opening doors and wallets for his favourite causes. Rickman was a firm believer in "sending the elevator back down" and provided support to young actors, writers and theatres whenever possible. His fellow professionals shared audience adoration of him, and the young casts of the Harry Potter films could not have asked for a more generous mentor than Severus Snape, on whom they bestowed homemade gifts and awards - all of which Rickman kept, and form a poignant part of this archive.
View all lots from LITTLE CHAOS, A (2014)
View all lots from Alan Rickman Archive