Director Stanley Kubrick is notable for covering a broad range of genres and is noted among the filmmakers for his realism, unique cinematography, extensive set designs, and dark humour. With films like 'The Shining,' '2001: A Space Odyssey,' 'Dr. Strangelove,' and others, Kubrick has consistently tried to achieve next to impossible. Fans of Kubrick would be delighted to know that one of his lost manuscripts has resurfaced and it could become a new feature film.
Back in 1956, Kubrick had adapted 1913 novella by Viennese writer Stefan Zweig. The story centred around a spa and showed a man using a 10-year-old boy to get close to his married mother. According to The Guardian, Kubrick wrote the screenplay with Calder Willingham, with whom he later collaborated to make Paths of Glory in 1957.
The lost screenplay titled Burning Secret has now been found by a film professor at Bangor University. Nathan Abrams revealed that several Kubrick experts knew about this screenplay but this is a proof that such screenplay exists in its entirety.
"I couldn't believe it. It's so exciting. It was believed to have been lost."
The screenplay of Burning Secret bears the stamp of the MGM script department and is dated October 24, 1956. Many are speculating that the reason why MGM decided to shelve the project was due to the involvement of a child as a go-between in an adultery storyline.
"The child acts as an unwitting go-between for his mother and her would-be lover, making for a disturbing story with sexuality and child abuse churning beneath its surface," Abrams added.
Abrams added that Kubrick's Burning Secret is like the inverse Lolita. As moviegoers comprehend this that in Lolita, a man marries the mother to get to the daughter. Whereas in Burning Secret, a man befriends a child to seduce his married mother.
"I think that with the 1956 production code, that would be a tricky one to get by. But he managed with Lolita in 1962 – only just."
Fans of Kubrick are excited after the news surfaced online. As of now, it is not clear when or if Burning Secret will make it to the celluloid.
