Moonlight and Magnolias at Des Moines Playhouse

1939 Hollywood is abuzz. Legendary producer David O. Selznick has shut down production of his new epic, Gone with the Wind. The screenplay, it turns out, just doesn't work. So what's an all-powerful movie mogul to do?

While fending off the film's stars, gossip columnists, and his own father-in-law, Selznick sends a car for famed screenwriter Ben Hecht and pulls formidable director Victor Fleming from the set of The Wizard of Oz. Summoning both to his office, he locks the doors, closes the shades, and, on a diet of bananas and peanuts, the three men have just five days to fashion a screenplay. Only trouble is, Ben Hecht hasn’t read the book and doesn’t know the story

Authors

• Ron Hutchinson