![New Alan Bennett film The Choral to be directed by Nicholas Hytner, stars Ralph Fiennes, Simon Russell-Beale & Jim Broadbent [Updated]](https://www.westendtheatre.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/The-Choral-Alan-Bennet-Nicholas-Hytner-Ralph-Fiennes.jpg "New Alan Bennett film The Choral to be directed by Nicholas Hytner, stars Ralph Fiennes, Simon Russell-Beale & Jim Broadbent [Updated]")
The History Boys & The Lady in the Van team of Alan Bennett, Nicholas Hytner & producer Kevin Loader reunite on new WW1 Yorkshire project The Choral starring Ralph Fiennes, Simon Russell Beale, and Jim Broadbent
A brand new Alan Bennett movie is in the works, to be directed by his longtime collaborator, director Nicholas Hytner.
The film, titled The Choral, is Bennett’s first original screenplay for 40 years – since A Private Function, and is headlined by star of stage and screen Ralph Fiennes (Macbeth), alongside stars Simon Russell-Beale and Jim Broadbent.
News of the project was first out at the beginning of March when Robert Sterne Casting announced a call for young people aged 17 to 20, who are native to Yorkshire, for major roles in the new, as-then untitled film.
A spokesperson for the film told the BBC that filming would take place in May 2024 in Yorkshire, for a 2026 release. The story is set in a choral society in a Yorkshire mill town in 1916, during World War I.
The casting call also said: “These are terrific leading roles and we require both male and female actors who are confident and with a good sense of humour.”
Further news of the movie has come from an interview with Nicholas Hytner by Dominic Cavendish in The Telegraph. Hytner reveals that the story of The Choral centres on how “the choir have lost their younger and middle-aged men to the war. So, you have older members – who are too old to fight – and teenagers. And that’s incredibly moving. It has many of the things that people will recognise as characteristic of Alan Bennett. It has the ambiguities and the griefs of the old. It has the energy of the young who all want to get laid before they get killed – a History Boys energy in a way, but the young women are as energetic as the young men.”
The movie will be produced by Kevin Loader, who produced Alan Bennett’s most recent film, Allelujah! starring Judi Dench, based on his play that Hytner directed at the Bridge Theatre in London, and produced The History Boys and The Lady in the Van with Nicholas Hytner directing. His production company, Free Range Entertainment, with distributor Embankment, and previously Free Range Films, has also produced The Mother, Enduring Love, Venus, Hyde Park on Hudson, Le Week-end, and more. Loader was also an executive producer on the recent Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads reboot for the BBC.
Loader’s fiorthcoming projects also include a film adaptation of hit stage play Clybourne Park, directed by Pam MacKinnon, and starring Sarah Paulson, Anthony Mackie, Martin Freeman, Uzo Aduba, Nick Robinson, and Hillary Baack.
Alan Bennett, who is 90, is one of Britain’s greatest living writers, with a body of work that covers plays, screenplays and books.
His plays include The History Boys, which is setting off on a new UK tour in 2024; The Madness of George III; and The Lady in the Van, all of which have also been turned into hit films. A number of his screenplays for film and TV, including Talking Heads and A Private Function, have also been turned into stage works.
Nicholas Hytner is one of Britain’s most successful directors, and former artistic director of the National Theatre. Hytner is currently artistic director of the London Theatre Company, which runs the Bridge Theatre in London, where his acclaimed production of Guys and Dolls is currently playing.
Earlier this week the Royal Court Theatre announced that Nicholas Hytner would direct John Lithgow in new drama Giant by Mark Rosenblatt at the Royal Court.
Ralph Fiennes is currently starring in Macbeth at Dock X in London alongside Indira Varma, until 30 March 2024. Macbeth will also be released in cinemas this May.
UPDATED: First published 7 March 2024, with details of the casting call for the untitled movie; Updated 21 March 2024 with further details about the film including the title and star
Related News
The Standard of Living reviews: “a belter” to some critics, “a colossal yawn” to others
See first-look photos of Rory Kinnear in James Graham’s new West End play The Standard of Living
12 must-see shows coming to the West End this Autumn
Everything you need to know about The Standard of Living, starring Rory Kinnear and Natalia Osipova
Latest News
Everything you need to know about The Traitors: Acts of Betrayal in London
Nina Raine’s sweeping new adaptation of Middlemarch arrives at the RSC: See brand-new images from the production
What to expect from Pride the Musical ahead of highly anticipated transfer to the Bridge Theatre
