text: In September 1969 it was announced Hiller would direct and that Harper and Row would publish a novelised version of the script in February of the following year. According to Evans, Paramount had suggested Segal adapt the screenplay into a novel to help promote the film. Minsky says he was the one who suggested this. Peter Bart, then an executive at Paramount, claims he suggested it. Segal says that he wrote the novel at the same time as the screenplay with considerable input from Gene Young of Harpers who was editor. The book was published in time for Valentine's Day in 1970, and became a best seller.
  Casting
  According to press reports, the lead role of Oliver Barrett IV was refused by Jeff Bridges, Michael Douglas, Beau Bridges, Michael York and Jon Voight. Evans says that Michael Sarrazin, Peter Fonda and Keith Carradine also turned it down. MacGraw recalls auditioning opposite Christopher Walken, Ken Howard and David Birney.
  Hiller says "we tested eight or nine different actors and Ryan was the best. He didn't bowl us over at first. Then I saw some footage of a film he was just completing at 20th Century Fox and I thought it would be wonderful. He just had that empathy and feeling that was so necessary." According to a contemporary account, O'Neal was tested on the recommendation of Erich Segal, who had worked with him on The Games; he was paid $25,000. Evans later claimed he insisted O'Neal be cast because he made the best test, over the objections of Hiller who wanted Walken.
  In November 1969 Evans claimed "We looked at 1,000 actors and that's not an exaggeration. We tested 14 unknowns and none of them compared to O'Neal."