Not every Broadway play that makes the leap from stage to screen is a big hit, but enough of them find success that playwrights and producers keep trying. Stephen Belber is the latest to give it a shot, converting his 2004 work The Match into a script and recruiting Patrick Stewart, Carla Gugino and Matthew Lillard for the film version.
Belber is also directing the movie, and has already kicked off shooting in New York. Stewart is starring as a reclusive, eccentric former choreographer turned Julliard dance instructor who gets a visit from Seattle couple Gugino and Lillard.
They claim they’re there so that she can interview Stewart’s character for her thesis on the New York dance movement in the 1960s. But there is a darker motive at work, and soon the instructor is forced to face the impact of decisions he made long ago. Yes, he really shouldn’t have tried to start the X-Men while also teaching dancers… Okay, that’s probably not it.
Though he’s been most famous for his stage work, this isn’t Belber’s first time directing. He made 2008 Jennifer Aniston comedy Management and adapted another of his plays, Tape, for Richard Linklater in 2001.