In his will, Forster left the rights to his books to King's College, Cambridge, which has a self-governing board of fellows of the college. They were initially reluctant to give permission to film "Maurice", not because of the subject matter of the novel, but because it was considered an inferior work, and a film that called attention to it would not enhance Forster's literary reputation. Ismail Merchant, the producer of the film, conferred with them and was very persuasive. They were favourably impressed with the adaptation by Merchant Ivory Productions of "A Room with a View" and relented.