19/08/2005

Screenwriter Alan Bennett and director Nicholas Hytner, the duo behind the Oscar nominated and Bafta-winning film The Madness Of King George, have teamed up again on the screen adaptation of the multi-awarded theatre play The History Boys. The key cast of the film will remain the same as the original stage version, with Richard Griffiths, Clive Merrison, Frances de la Tour and Stephen Campbell Moore. New characters will be played by Penelope Wilson (Calendar Girls), Adrian Scarborough (Vera Drake) and Georgia Taylor.

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Set in a Northern English High School in the 1980s, The History Boys tells the story of a group of bright, funny history students in pursuit of an undergraduate place at Oxford or Cambridge. The boys experiences while going through the university admission process, is as much about how education works as about where education leads.
The film is produced by Kevin Loader (Enduring Love), Damian Jones (Milllions) and Nicholas Hytner with financing from DNA and BBC Films. Fox Searchlight will handle US and international distribution.