Alan Bennett's The History Boys Readies for the Big Screen
Alan Bennett's The History Boys is coming to the big screen with the majority of the stage cast intact. Stage helmer Nicholas Hytner will direct the film and Bennett will adapt his own play, according to Variety.
The History Boys consists of an unruly bunch of bright, funny sixth-form boys in pursuit of sex, sport and a place at university, a maverick English teacher Richard Griffiths at odds with the young and shrewd supply teacher Stephen Campbell Moore. There is also a headmaster Clive Merrison obsessed with results, and a history teacher Frances de la Tour who thinks he's a fool. Staff room rivalry and the anarchy of adolescence provoke insistent questions about history and how to teach it.
The History Boys, which ended a run at the National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre a couple of months ago, garnered the Evening Standard, Critic's Circle and Olivier Awards for Best Play. In addition to those mentioned above, Sacha Dhawan, Samuel Anderson, Dominic Cooper, Andrew Knott, Samuel Barnett, Russell Tovey, Jamie Parker and James Corden from the stage production are set for the motion picture. This cast is also expected to tour with The History Boys and bring it to Broadway in April 2006.
