Bette Davis led to speculation in the press that she would be chosen to play Scarlett O'Hara, a similar character, in "Gone with the Wind". Davis expressed her desire to play Scarlett, and while David O. Selznick was conducting a search for the actress to play the role, a radio poll named her as the audience favorite. Warner offered her services to Selznick as part of a deal that also included Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, but Selznick did not consider Davis as suitable, and rejected the offer, while Davis did not want Flynn cast as Rhett Butler. Newcomer Vivien Leigh
Gone with the Wind (film) at "popular" prices. Along with its distribution and advertising costs, total expenditure on the film was as high as $7 million. In 1942, Selznick liquidated his company for tax reasons, and sold his share in "Gone with the Wind" to his business partner, John Whitney, for $500,000. In turn, Whitney sold it on to MGM for $2.8 million, so that the studio owned the film outright. MGM immediately re-released the film in spring 1942, and again in 1947 and 1954; the 1954 reissue was the first time the film was shown in widescreen, compromising the original Academy ratio and cropping