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Alan Rickman's bound personal hand-annotated shooting script, clapperboard, and other production ephemera from the production of the 1997 drama film, The Winter Guest, co-written and directed by Rickman himself. The film was Rickman's first as a director, in which he made a brief, Hitchcock-like cameo. This lot comes from the personal archive of the late Alan Rickman.

Included in this lot are three copies of the film's script, one of which has been hand-annotated by Rickman, a behind-the-scenes photograph autographed by Rickman, a clapperboard, handwritten notes, handwritten letters from Emma Thompson and Phyllida Law to Rickman, call sheets and storyboard prints. The annotated script features a number of annotations of note, including handwritten rewrites of lines of dialogue and small doodles drawn on the reverse of pages. 130 of the 143 pages in this script have been annotated.

Also included is a clapperboard, consisting of an acrylic slate with magnetic wooden clappers, on which handwritten are scene, roll, and take numbers, as well as the date "6.12.96". The board names Alan Rickman as director and Seamus McGarvey as cameraman. Dimensions (script): 31.5 cm x 23. 5 cm x 3 cm (12.5" x 9.25" x 1.25")

Estimate: £4,000 - 8,000 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 WINTER GUEST, THE (1997)

View all lots from Alan Rickman Archive