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Alan Rickman's heavily annotated personal shooting script, revised script pages and ephemera from the production of John McTiernan's action thriller Die Hard. In his feature film debut, Rickman played criminal mastermind Hans Gruber, creating a performance so iconic that the character influenced many subsequent cinematic villains. This lot comes from the personal archive of the late Alan Rickman.
This is Rickman's personal shooting script, filled with handwritten annotations and highlights. Dated "October 2, 1987", this "Second Revised Draft" is credited to Jeb Stuart with revisions by Steven E. DeSouza. It is 112 pages long and Rickman has signed the front cover. Both the front and back covers are now detached from the script and are taped together.
Rickman has extensively annotated the script throughout, highlighting his dialogue and making subtle changes. He has written a scene-by-scene script breakdown on the inside-front cover, crossing out the scenes as they were completed. There are also several loose pieces of paper held within the script, including a call sheet, a memo with updated dialogue for the scene with Mr Takagi (James Shigeta) ("And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept. For there were no more worlds to conquer"), and three small pages with dialogue alterations handwritten by Rickman. In total, 56 pages feature Rickman's annotations and/or highlights.
The lot also includes 14 loose revised script pages (two of which feature Rickman's handwriting); Alan Rickman's invitation and ticket to the Gala Preview of Die Hard, held at the Empire Cinema, Leicester Square on 29 January 1988; two press packs containing cast lists, production information and promotional photographs; an empty third press pack; and a pair of black-and-white surveillance photos of Mr Takagi that do not appear in the film.
The lot comes in a plastic box labelled "DIE HARD" in Rickman's handwriting. Rickman personally archived all of his cinematic mementoes in this manner before his death in 2016. Dimensions (box): 33.5 cm x 26 cm x 6 cm (13.25" x 10.25" x 2.25")
Estimate: £30,000 - 60,000 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.
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