Bonhams is to offer the original working script for Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker (1979) as part of its Voices of the 20th Century sale.

The film is based on the classic sci-fi novel Roadside Picnic, by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky.

Tarkovsky's Stalker is one of the most celebrated films of all time

It tells the story of a journey made into "the Zone", an eerie locale of strange phenomena. The film is regularly hailed as one of the greatest movies of all time.

Tarkovsky was a Russian director known for his deeply poetic, dreamlike approach to filmmaking. He is a towering influence on directors in both mainstream and art house cinema.  

This script dates to 1977 and differs greatly from the finished film.

It's filled with Tarkovsky's own marginalia, and a sketch of the Zone is included on the reverse of one of the leaves.

It's a hugely important piece of film history, hence its estimate of $150,000-200,000.

Earlier this year a set of Polaroids taken by Tarkovsky sold for £32,500 ($41,000).

A typed, manuscript copy of a short story by Ernest Hemingway is expected to make around $15,000-20,000.

Titled The Capital of the World (1936), the tale unfurls against the suitably Hemingwayesque backdrop of a bull fight.

Again it features the author's various revisions and notes, offering a window into his working process.

The auction will take place in New York on December 7.

We've got a superb selection of books and manuscripts for sale.

Please sign up to our free newsletter to receive exciting news about book and manuscript auctions.