Vivien Leigh travelled to Hollywood, leaving Leigh in London. Goldwyn and the film's director, William Wyler, offered Leigh the secondary role of Isabella, but she refused, preferring the role of Cathy, which went to Merle Oberon. Hollywood was in the midst of a widely publicized search to find an actress to portray Scarlett O'Hara in David O. Selznick's production of "Gone with the Wind" (1939). At the time, Myron Selznick—David's brother and Leigh's American theatrical agent—was the London representative of the Myron Selznick Agency. In February 1938, Leigh made a request to Myron Selznick that she be considered to play the part
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