By Susan Dunne, The Hartford Courant
Oscar-winning actor Dustin Hoffman will be shooting a movie titled “Boychoir” at Fairfield University from Feb. 24 to March 28, according to the Connecticut Film Office website.
Hoffman will come to the university on Thursday, Feb. 20, at 7 p.m., to talk about the production. Residents of Fairfield who can show proof of residency can register for the chance to attend the talk, Visit www.fairfield.edu/hoffman for details.
“Individuals whose names have been drawn for tickets will be notified by e-mail on Saturday, Feb. 15,” the university website states.
Also attending the Fairfield talk that night is the film’s director, Francois Girard, who specializes in movies about classical music (“The Red Violin,” “Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould.”) Hoffman is interested in classical music, too, having made his directoral debut last year with “Quartet.”
The plot of “Boychoir” is described by the Internet Movie Database: “Stet, a troubled and angry 11-year-old orphan from a small Texas town, ends up at a Boy Choir school back east after the death of his single mom. Completely out of his element, he finds himself in a battle of wills with a demanding choir master who recognizes a unique talent in this young boy as he pushes him to discover his creative heart and soul in music.”
The movie also will star Oscar-winner Kathy Bates, Alfred Molina and possibly Sissy Spacek. Hoffman will portray the choir master. Molina will play a teacher. Bates will play the school’s headmistress. It will be produced by Informant Media, which produced the 2009 drama “Crazy Heart,” which won Jeff Bridges an Oscar for best actor.
According to Hollywood trade publication Daily Variety, singers from the American Boychoir School in Princeton, N.J., will be featured in the production. “These boys’ voices soar with this rare, unearthly ability for only a few years of their young lives, then their voices transform, a gift seemingly lost,” Girard told Variety. “But what they experience in that brief time shapes them forever.”
Variety also reports that the movie already has been sold in 35 international territories, after it was unveiled at American Film Market last fall.
The production team will be hiring crew for all positions. Applicants should put the position they are applying to in the subject line of an email to boychoir2014@gmail.com.