Date announced for The Choral cinema release
Sony Pictures Classics has released the first trailer for major new movie The Choral, written by Alan Bennett.
The film reunites the team behind hit stage plays and films The History Boys and The Lady in the Van, bringing together writer Alan Bennett, director Nicholas Hytner and producer Kevin Loader.
The film is set in Yorkshire during World War I, in a choral society in a Yorkshire mill town in 1916.
The Choral is Bennett’s first original screenplay for 40 years, since A Private Function in 1984, and is headlined by star of stage and screen Ralph Fiennes, alongside stars Simon Russell-Beale, Roger Allam, Alun Armstrong, and Mark Addy.
Watch the trailer for The Choral
The film also stars Amara Okereke, Robert Emms, Thomas Howes, Emily Fairn, Jacob Dudman, Taylor Uttley, Nathan Hall, Reuben Bainbridge, Ellie Sager and Oliver Briscombe.
News of the project was first out at the beginning of March last year, 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.
Nicholas Hytner told Dominic Cavendish in The Telegraph that 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.”
More about The Choral
The Choral is set in 1916. As war rages on the Western Front, the Choral Society in Ramsden, Yorkshire has lost most of its men to the army. The Choral’s ambitious committee, determined to press ahead, decides to recruit local young males to swell their ranks. They must also engage a new chorus master, and despite their suspicions that he has something to hide, their best bet seems to be Dr. Henry Guthrie (Ralph Fiennes) – driven, uncompromising, and recently returned from a career in Germany. As conscription papers start to arrive, the whole community discovers that the best response to the chaos that is laying waste to their lives is to make music together.
More about the creators of The Choral
The movie is 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 forthcoming 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 A Midsummer Night’s Dream is now playing (until 20 August). He recently directed Giant at the Royal Court and in the West End, starring John Lithgow.
Stars of The Choral
BAFTA winner Ralph Fiennes is currently running a season at the Theatre Royal Bath. He recently starred in David Hare’s new play Grace Pervades at the venue, which is transferring to the Theatre Royal Haymarket in April 2026; and is now directing Harriet Walter in As You Like It. In Bath, he will also star in Oscar-winning writer Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s new drama Small Hotel alongside Francesca Annis.
Simon Russell Beale is about to star in the London transfer of the RSC’s new production of Titus Andronicus directed by Max Webster, playing at Hampstead Theatre from 5 September.
Amara Okereke is currently starring in ECHO at the King’s Head Theatre (until 17 August), alongside Kyle Rowe. Her previous credits include playing Eliza in My Fair Lady at the London Coliseum.
The Choral release date
Sony Pictures Classics have announced that the release date of The Choral will be 7 November 2025.
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