 The original script was written by Tom Schulman, based on his experiences at the Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, Tennessee, particularly with his inspirational teacher Samuel Pickering.In Schulman's manuscript, Keating had been ill, slowly dying of Hodgkin lymphoma with a scene showing him on his deathbed in hospital.This was removed by Weir which deemed it unnecessary claiming this would focus audiences on Keating's illness and not on what he stood for.