2:33pm Tuesday 16th March 2010
© Press Association 2011
Dustin Hoffman is teaming up with BBC Films to make his directorial debut.
The 72-year-old Oscar-winning actor will direct Dame Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay and Albert Finney in Quartet, about a group of retired opera singers living in a retirement home who plan a concert for Verdi's birthday.
Ronald Harwood, who wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for The Pianist, will adapt his play for the film.
The production will be shot to air on UK television.
The Graduate star Hoffman recently signed on for a role in a pilot of a new US show, Luck, for HBO.
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