Capote

In November, 1959, Truman Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the author of Breakfast at Tiffany's, reads an article on a back page of the New York Times. It tells of the murders of four members of a well-known farm family—the Clutters—in Holcomb, Kansas. It presents an opportunity, he believes, to test his long-held theory that, in the hands of the right writer, non-fiction can be as compelling as fiction. He convinces The New Yorker magazine to give him an assignment and he sets out for Kansas. Accompanying him is a friend from his Alabama childhood: Harper Lee (Catherine Keener), who within a few months will win a Pulitzer Prize and achieve fame of her own as the author of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Though his childlike voice, fey mannerisms and unconventional clothes arouse initial hostility in a part of the country that still thinks of itself as part of the Old West, Capote quickly wins the trust of the locals, most notably Alvin Dewey (Chris Cooper), the Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent who is leading the hunt for the killers, who are ultimately caught, tried, convicted and sentenced to die. As Capote visits the killers in jail and gets to know them, he realizes that what he had thought would be a magazine article has grown into a book, a book that could rank with the greatest in modern literature.

Hidden behind Capote's often frivolous facade is a writer of towering ambition. But even he wonders if he can write the book—the great book—he believes destiny has handed him.

Capote: The Shooting Script includes the complete screenplay for the acclaimed film, a foreword by Gerald Clarke, Capote's official biographer, an exclusive Q&A with screenwriter Dan Futterman and director Bennett Miller, background notes on In Cold Blood and an excerpt from the Clarke biography, and an 16 color photos.