Director Richard Eyre (Notes on a Scandal, Iris) and Dame Judi Dench are teaming up again for a film adaptation of Alan Bennett’s stage play Allelujah. Pathé announced this week that principal photography on Allelujah has begun. Dench will star alongside Jennifer Saunders, Bally Gill, Russell Tovey, David Bradley, and Derek Jacobi.
The film is being described as a dark comedy set in a geriatric ward within a small hospital. When news of its closure begins to reach the community, the hospital invites a local news crew to document their planning of a concert in honor of the hospital's most celebrated nurse. But there might be something more threatening to the hospital itself, more deadly than the politicians ready to shut down the place at a moment's notice.
The film will be adapted for the screen by Heidi Thomas (Call The Midwife) and will be produced by Damian Jones (The Iron Lady) and Kevin Loader (The Personal History of David Copperfield).
Eyre’s creative team includes director of photography Ben Smithard (The Father, Downton Abbey), costume designer Jacqueline Durran (Little Women, Darkest Hour), makeup and hair designer Naomi Donne (1917, Skyfall), production designer Donal Woods (Downton Abbey, My Week With Marilyn), and composer George Fenton (The Duke, The Lady In The Van)
ALLELUJAH is a Pathé, BBC Film, and Ingenious Media presentation of a DJ Films/Redstart Production. Executive producers are Cameron McCracken and Jenny Borgars for Pathé, Rose Garnett for BBC Film, Andrea Scarso for Ingenious Media, Alan Bennett, and Nicholas Hytner.
Pathé will distribute the film in the UK, France, and Switzerland and will handle sales for the rest of the world. No release date has been announced yet, but you can read the synopsis for the film below:
A darkly comedic story of a geriatric ward in a small Yorkshire hospital threatened with closure. The hospital decides to fight back by galvanizing the local community: they invite a news crew to film their preparations for a concert in honour of the hospital’s most distinguished nurse. What could go wrong? ALLELUJAH rejoices in the antics of the wayward patients and their frazzled families, whilst celebrating the deep humanity of the medical staff battling with limited resources and ever-growing demand. But in the midst of the tears and the laughter, we slowly realise that there is something threatening the hospital that is far more lethal than the politicians demanding efficiency at any cost.