All boys. All boarding. Grades 9-12.
Coming Through the Rye is Now on Netflix
Coming Through the Rye, the feature movie filmed at Woodberry Forest School during the fall of 2014, is now available for viewing on the subscription service Netflix. “From an artistic standpoint,” says James Sadwith, the film’s Emmy-winning screenwriter and director, “It’s gratifying to have the movie out and available.” The script is based on his real-life experiences as a young man attending a New England boarding school.
During the movie shoot, the Woodberry campus transformed into the fictional Crampton Prep, providing a setting for the film inspired by J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. Exterior scenes were shot in Armfield Courtyard and at Robertson Lake, while interior footage was shot in the Dick Gym, Bowman Gray Auditorium, St. Andrew's Chapel, the Walker Building Lobby, and the Reynolds Family Dining Room. Some sequences feature aerial views of athletic fields and buildings.
“When I first drove onto the campus, my jaw dropped,” Mr. Sadwith says. “Everything in the script was there. It was unspoiled.” He says he is grateful to the students, faculty, and staff who welcomed film crews to campus and served as actors, stand-ins, and extras alongside stars Alex Wolff and Stefania Owen. Academy Award winner Chris Cooper plays J.D. Salinger.
Coming Through the Rye, which was screened at film festivals such as the Virginia Film Festival, the Phoenix Film Festival, and the Cleveland International Film Festival, gained national distribution via services like iTunes and Amazon Movies. It was chosen for in-flight presentation by American Airlines and was seen on cable video on demand before being picked up by Netflix.
Woodberry Forest School is an exceptional private school community for high school boys in grades nine through twelve. It is one of the top boarding schools in the United States and one of the only all-boys, all-boarding schools in the country.
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Woodberry Forest admits students of any race, color, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, and national or ethnic origin to all of the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, or national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic or other school-administered programs. The school is authorized under federal law to enroll nonimmigrant students.