Nicholas Hytner to direct film of The History Boys

Fox Searchlight Pictures, DNA Films, and the BBC have teamed up to adapt Alan Bennett's triple Olivier-winning The History Boys into a feature film. Out director Nicholas Hytner, whose film credits include The Object of My Affection and The Crucible, will helm from a script adapted for the screen by Bennett. Daily Variety reports that production is slated to begin in the United Kingdom in July. The plot centers on a class of clever, funny teenage boys and their relationships with an iconoclastic English instructor (Richard Griffiths); a newly minted professor (Stephen Campbell Moore) retained to boost test scores; an overwhelmed history teacher (Frances de la Tour); and a headmaster (Clive Merrison) relentlessly focused on results. The History Boys premiered last year at the National Theatre in London--where Hytner serves as artistic director--and won Oliviers (the U.K.'s national theater awards) for Best New Play, Best Director, and Best Actor (Griffiths) as well as Evening Standard and Critics Circle honors for Best Play.