Sony Pictures Classics has taken worldwide rights to Nicholas Hytner’s The Choral, written by Alan Bennett, and set to star Ralph Fiennes, Jim Broadbent and Simon Russell Beale.
This is the fourth feature collaboration between Bennett and Hytner after The Lady In The Van, The History Boys and The Madness Of King George. Unlike those films,The Choral is based on an original screenplay rather than a play.
Hytner will produce the film alongside Kevin Loader and Damian Jones. Backing comes from Sony Pictures Classics, BBC Film and Screen Yorkshire, and shooting will commence in Yorkshire this May.
Executive producers include Caroline Cooper Charles, Eva Yates, Paul Grindey and Charles Moore.
The Choral is about an ambitious choral society in Yorkshire in 1916 in which the chorus master and most of the choir have volunteered for the front. Under the direction of the demanding, driven Dr. Guthrie (Fiennes), the choral recruits a crop of teenage boys and girls. Together they discover the joys of singing and the urgency of desire as the new boys come to terms with their imminent conscription into the army.
Sony Pictures Classics previously released Hytner and Bennett’s The Lady In The Van. The Choral also reunites Sony Pictures Classics with Fiennes, whose last two directorial efforts, The White Crow and The Invisible Woman, were released by the distributor in addition to several of his films as an actor, including The White Countess. Like Fiennes, Broadbent has starred in several Sony Pictures Classics’ films, including The Duke and Another Year.
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