Prior to the run of Sorkin's adaptation, another version of the play by Christopher Sergel had been available for license for over 50 years. Since the opening of Sorkin's adaptation, lawyers acting for Atticus Limited Liability Company (the company formed by Rudin for the Broadway production of "To Kill a Mockingbird") claimed worldwide exclusivity for professional stage rights to "any" adaptation of Lee's book. The company has moved aggressively to shut down all other productions of "To Kill a Mockingbird" staged within 25 miles of any city ALLC determines to be a major metropolitan center that might eventually host the Sorkin adaptation – even though the companies had been legally granted rights by Dramatic Publishing Co. to produce the Sergel adaptation. One of the amateur companies, The Grand Theatre, estimated that the cancellation of "Mockingbird" would cost the theatre some $20,000. In the week that the "New York Times" story ran, it was revealed that Rudin had recently purchased a $15 million New York City home from former "Vanity Fair" editor Graydon Carter.