 In the wake of its 1950s success , Salinger received ( and rejected ) numerous offers to adapt The Catcher in the Rye for the screen , including one from Samuel Goldwyn . Since its publication , there has been sustained interest in the novel among filmmakers , with Billy Wilder , Harvey Weinstein , and Steven Spielberg among those seeking to secure the rights . Salinger stated in the 1970s that " Jerry Lewis tried for years to get his hands on the part of Holden . " Salinger repeatedly refused , though , and in 1999 , Joyce Maynard definitively concluded : " The only person who might ever have played Holden Caulfield would have been J. D. Salinger . " 
