Sir Alfred Hitchcock first asked Evan Hunter, the screenwriter for The Birds (1963), to adapt the novel after Tippi Hedren had signed on. However, Hunter strongly objected to the scene in the novel where Mark rapes Marnie, as he felt it was "unheroic" and that it would make women in the audience hate Mark. When he pressed Hitchcock about changing the scene, Hitchcock fired him. Jay Presson Allen, who took over as screenwriter, stated that opposition to the rape scene doomed Hunter since that scene was the main reason Hitchcock wanted to do the movie. For her part, Allen said she never had any qualms about including the scene, and felt it was up to Sir Sean Connery and his charisma to make the audience "forgive" Mark's actions.