LONDON: A "lost" screenplay written by legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick has been discovered and the almost complete script can be developed into a full-length feature film.
Entitled "Burning Secret", the script is an adaptation of the 1913 novella by the Viennese writer Stefan Zweig, reported the Independent.
In Kubrick's adaptation of the story of adultery and passion set in a spa resort, a suave and predatory man befriends a 10-year-old boy, using him to seduce the child's married mother.
The director wrote it in 1956 with the novelist Calder Willingham, with whom he went on to collaborate on "Paths of Glory" the following year.
The screenplay was found by Bangor University film professor Nathan Abrams who said, "Kubrick aficionados know he wanted to do it, (but) no one ever thought it was completed. We now have a copy and this proves that he had done a full screenplay. I couldn't believe it. It's so exciting. It was believed to have been lost."
"It's a full screenplay so could be completed by filmmakers today," he added.
The script was unearthed by Abrams during his research for the book "Eyes Wide Shut: Stanley Kubrick and the Making of His Final Film", which will be published next year.
It is owned by the son of one of Kubrick's former collaborators According to The Guardian, the screenplay is marked with the stamp of MGM's script department who may have cancelled the project when Kubrick breached his contract by signing up to World War I classic "Paths of Glory".