Kill Your Darlings

Kill Your Darlings is a 2013 American biographical drama film about the college lives of leading members of the Beat Generation: Lucien Carr, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac. Written by Austin Bunn, it is directed by John Krokidas in his feature film directorial debut. The film had its world premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, garnering positive first reactions. It was shown at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, and it had a limited theatrical North American release from October 16, 2013. Kill Your Darlings became available on Blu-ray and DVD in the US on March 18, 2014, and then in the UK on April 21, 2014. The title is a reference to the often-misquoted advice of Arthur Quiller-Couch, that writers must be willing to remove their most finely written passages if they fail to serve the piece as a whole: "Murder your darlings."