<P> The Sound of Music story is based on Maria von Trapp's memoir, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, published in 1949 to help promote her family's singing group following the death of her husband Georg in 1947 . Hollywood producers expressed interest in purchasing the title only, but Maria refused, wanting her entire story to be told . In 1956, German producer Wolfgang Liebeneiner purchased the film rights for $9,000 (equivalent to $81,000 in 2017), hired George Hurdalek and Herbert Reinecker to write the screenplay, and Franz Grothe to supervise the soundtrack, which consisted of traditional Austrian folk songs . The Trapp Family was released in West Germany on October 9, 1956 and became a major success . Two years later, Liebeneiner directed a sequel, The Trapp Family in America, and the two pictures became the most successful films in West Germany during the post-war years . Their popularity extended throughout Europe and South America . </P> <P> In 1956, Paramount Pictures purchased the United States film rights, intending to produce an English - language version with Audrey Hepburn as Maria . The studio eventually dropped its option, but one of its directors, Vincent J. Donehue, proposed the story as a stage musical for Mary Martin . Producers Richard Halliday and Leland Heyward secured the rights and hired playwrights Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, who had won the Pulitzer Prize for State of the Union . They approached Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II to compose one song for the musical, but the composers felt the two styles--traditional Austrian folk songs and their composition--would not work together . They offered to write a complete new score for the entire production if the producers were willing to wait while they completed work on Flower Drum Song . The producers quickly responded that they would wait as long as necessary . The Sound of Music stage musical opened on November 16, 1959 at the Lunt - Fontanne Theatre in New York City and ran on Broadway for 1,443 performances, winning six Tony Awards, including Best Musical . In June 1960, Twentieth Century Fox purchased the film adaptation rights to the stage musical for $1.25 million (equivalent to $10,300,000 in 2017) against ten percent of the gross . </P> <P> For the film, Richard Rodgers added two new songs, "I Have Confidence" and "Something Good", for which he wrote the lyrics as well as the music (Hammerstein having died in August 1960), while three of the original stage songs were omitted, "How Can Love Survive", "No Way To Stop It" and "An Ordinary Couple". Arranger and conductor Irwin Kostal prerecorded the songs with a large orchestra and singers on a stage prior to the start of filming, and later adapted instrumental underscore passages based on the songs . Choreographers Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood, who had worked with Andrews on Mary Poppins, worked out all new choreography sequences that incorporated many of the Salzburg locations and settings . The Sound of Music was filmed from March 26 through September 1, 1964, with external scenes shot on location in Salzburg, Austria, and the surrounding region, and interior scenes filmed at the 20th Century Fox studios in California . The movie was photographed in 70 mm Todd - AO by Ted McCord and produced with DeLuxe Color processing and six - track sound recording . </P> <P> In December 1962, 20th Century Fox president Richard D. Zanuck hired Ernest Lehman to write the screenplay for the film adaptation of the stage musical . Lehman reviewed the original script for the stage musical, rearranged the sequence of songs, and began transforming a work designed for the stage into a film that could use the camera to emphasize action and mood, and open the story up to the beautiful locations of Salzburg and the Austrian Alps . The "Do - Re-Mi" sequence in the play, for example, was originally a stagnant number; Lehman transformed it into a lively montage showing some of the beautiful sites of Salzburg, as well as showing Maria and the children growing closer over time . Lehman also eliminated two songs, "How Can Love Survive?" and "No Way to Stop It", sung by the characters of Elsa and Max . In January 1963, he saw the Fox English - dubbed version of the two German films, was not especially impressed, and decided to use the stage musical and Maria's memoir for most of his source material . While Lehman was developing the screenplay, he and Zanuck began looking for a director . Their first choice was Robert Wise, with whom Lehman had worked on the film adaptation of West Side Story, but Wise was busy preparing work for another film, The Sand Pebbles . Other directors were approached and turned down the offer, including Stanley Donen, Vincent J. Donehue, George Roy Hill, and Gene Kelly . </P>

Where in austria was the sound of music filmed