A Rhodes scholar, Idaho native Michael Hoffman's first film, 1982's Privileged, included fellow Oxford student Hugh Grant. His script Promised Land was selected for the 1984 Sundance Institute Filmmakers Lab and was eventually produced by Robert Redford's Wildwood Productions, starring Kiefer Sutherland and Meg Ryan. Other features include Restless Natives, Some Girls (Sundance Film Festival 1989), Soapdish, Restoration, One Fine Day, A Midsummer Nights Dream, and The Emperor's Club. Hoffman is currently at work adapting a novel about the last year of Tolstoy's life.