BBC Films has signed up Dustin Hoffman, the 72-year-old star of films including Rain Man and The Graduate, to direct his first film, while Armando Iannucci is writing a new film with Will Smith and Roger Drew.
BBC Films, making the announcement at the Cannes Film Festival, said Hoffman will direct a British comedy starring Dame Maggie Smith, Albert Finney and Sir Tom Courtenay. The film, called Quartet, is about former opera singers who fell out when they were young but get back together for a concert when they meet at a retirement home.
Iannucci, the writer of BBC series The Thick of It which made a star out of Peter Capaldi for his turn as foul-mouthed Scottish spin doctor Malcolm Tucker, has also unveiled a new project through BBC Films.
The comedy, Out the Window, is reported to have a budget of about $20m.
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