<P> When The Catcher in the Rye was first released, many offers were made to adapt it for the screen, including one from Samuel Goldwyn, producer of My Foolish Heart . In a letter written in the early 1950s, Salinger spoke of mounting a play in which he would play the role of Holden Caulfield opposite Margaret O'Brien, and, if he couldn't play the part himself, to "forget about it ." Almost 50 years later, the writer Joyce Maynard definitively concluded, "The only person who might ever have played Holden Caulfield would have been J.D. Salinger ." </P> <P> Salinger told Maynard in the 1970s that Jerry Lewis "tried for years to get his hands on the part of Holden," despite Lewis not having read the novel until he was in his thirties . Celebrities ranging from Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson to Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio have since tried to make a film adaptation . In an interview with Premiere, John Cusack commented that his one regret about turning 21 was that he had become too old to play Holden Caulfield . Writer - director Billy Wilder recounted his abortive attempts to snare the novel's rights: </P> <P> Of course I read The Catcher in the Rye...Wonderful book . I loved it . I pursued it . I wanted to make a picture out of it . And then one day a young man came to the office of Leland Hayward, my agent, in New York, and said,' Please tell Mr. Leland Hayward to lay off . He's very, very insensitive .' And he walked out . That was the entire speech . I never saw him . That was J.D. Salinger and that was Catcher in the Rye . </P> <P> In 1961, Salinger denied Elia Kazan permission to direct a stage adaptation of Catcher for Broadway . More recently, Salinger's agents received bids for the Catcher film rights from Harvey Weinstein and Steven Spielberg, neither of which was even passed on to Salinger for consideration . </P>

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