<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> 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>
who owns the rights to the sound of music
who owns the rights to the sound of music
Twentieth Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox