Editing Klute (section)

===Development===
[[Andy Lewis (screenwriter)|Andy Lewis]], a writer who had primarily worked in television, developed the screenplay for ''Klute'' with the goal of wanting to transition into feature films.<ref name=tru>{{cite web|url=https://trustory.fm/blog/a-qa-with-klute-co-writer-andy-lewis/|website=TruStory FM|title=A Q&A with "Klute" Co-Writer Andy Lewis|date=April 10, 2013|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230529062932/https://trustory.fm/blog/a-qa-with-klute-co-writer-andy-lewis/|archive-date=May 29, 2023}}</ref> His initial inspiration for the screenplay originated from a serial story he had read as a child in ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]'' about a man from the country who ventures into the city in an attempt to solve the murder of his brother who was killed there in an empty lot.<ref name=tru/> Lewis focused on two themes he felt were resonant to Americans, firstly "the [[Yokel|rube]] who turns the tables on the city slickers", and secondly, paranoia: "I'm sure this afflicts people all over the world, but I somehow think of it as typically American. The hidden pattern of things. The darkness. The people out there watching you, plotting against you, waiting to hurt you. Sounds you hear at night. Silences on the phone. All that stuff. I figured I would write this thing, however it went, to take the fullest possible advantage of this—what should we call it?—instinct. Deliberately."<ref name=tru/>

The [[spec script]] was completed by Andy Lewis in collaboration with his older brother, Dave.<ref name=tru/> The brothers corresponded by letters and phone—Andy from his [[Massachusetts]] residence, and Dave from his home in [[California]]—with Andy undertaking much of the scripting.<ref name=tru/> Andy commented that the writing was highly collaborative, concluding: "I'd have trouble attributing any part of the original script to one or the other of us solely."<ref name=tru/>