Bennett and Hytner Team Up for History Boys Film

By: Jun. 10, 2005
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Playwright Alan Bennett and director Nicholas Hytner will team up once again to bring Bennett's The History Boys to the big screen.

Hytner recently directed the piece at The National Theatre, where it received the Evening Standard, Critic's Circle and Olivier Awards for Best Play. Bennett will adapt the work into a screenplay, with The BBC, Fox Searchlight Pictures and DNA Films co-financing the screen version, and Hytner, Kevin Loader and Damian Jones producing.

The History Boys concerns the academic and personal lives of a group of boys at a university, as well as those of their professors. Richard Griffiths, Stephen Campbell Moore and Clive Merrison will return to star in the film, as well as original cast members Sacha Dhawan, Samuel Anderson, Dominic Cooper, Andrew Knott, Samuel Barnett, Russell Tovey, Jamie Parker and James Corde. In addition, the film will feature characters who are referenced but not seen in the stage play.

In 1994, Hytner directed the screen adaptation of Bennett's The Madness of King George, which starred the Oscar-nominated Nigel Hawthorne in spite of studio heads lobbying for Al Pacino to win the title role. On Broadway, Hytner helmed Miss Saigon, the Royal National Theatre production of Carousel (Olivier and Tony Awards for Best Director of a Musical), Twelth Night, Sweet Smell of Success and the RNT production of Jumpers. Bennett's other plays include Talking Heads, Habeas Corpus and Beyond the Fringe.

The History Boys will commence shooting in Manchester (for the exterior of the school) and London in July.


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