The Ties That Bind

Eight years after his debut as a director on “Without a Trace,” producer Stanley Jaffe has decided to try it again with “School Ties,” a coming-of-age drama set in the 1950s, examining ethnic and class prejudice in an exclusive New England prep school.

Jaffe says he’s been developing the project for eight years, spurred on by his “love for the boarding school background” and concern about the social issues. He’s now casting and scouting locations. Darryl Ponicsan has revised an original screenplay by Dick Wolfe. Paramount will distribute.

“Without a Trace,” a drama about a mother trying to solve the mystery of her missing child, was released in 1983--about the time Jaffe joined production forces with Sherry Lansing.

“It was a difficult experience for me,” he admits of his “Without a Trace” directing debut. “It was not commercially successful, although it was reasonably successful creatively. I feel that I could have done it better and that’s one reason I want to go back and (direct) again.”