ACADEMY Award winning actors Philip Seymour Hoffman and Cate Blanchett will direct Sydney Theatre Company productions in 2007.

Hoffman, the star of Capote, will embark on his first-ever international theatre collaboration by directing the world premiere of Riflemind, starring Hugo Weaving and written by Andrew Upton, Blanchett’s husband.

“I’ve known Andrew for eight years and have always felt that he was an extraordinarily bright and talented man,” Hoffman said.

“His play Riflemind is an original and I hope this opportunity to collaborate with Andrew and the Sydney Theatre Company will be the beginning of many more to come.”

Blanchett will direct David Harrower’s award-winning play Blackbird, about the awkward reunion of a man and a woman 15 years after a brief sexual affair when he was 40 and she was just 12 years of age.