A young filmmaker? She's 16 going on 40

Dutoit has a younger brother with whom she is very close, and two dogs. She admits that growing up she loved the comedy "A Night at the Roxbury." Her two favorite films are "Titanic" and "The Notebook." Her father says that she is becoming interested in boys, but she seems mostly focused on writing and making movies. His daughter has made some good friends since moving back to L.A., but her being "so young and doing so much, there are some acceptance problems. Some of her best friends are special ed. She doesn't really care about social status."

Besides, Ivan Dutoit says his precocious daughter is following in the footsteps of his own father, who decided at 11 to become an orchestra conductor. "He became one of the world's greatest conductors, and has been relentless at it for 50 years and he never took no for an answer."

Dutoit graduated early from high school last June and is set to start majoring in psychology at Santa Monica City College in January; she is hoping to finish the psych degree at Stanford University. She decided not to major in cinema, because "psychology would help me to deal with actors."

And she's already written her next film, for which she is thinking of a title. "I am planning on shooting it in the summer. It's a period piece. I just finished the script. Man, for me, when I'm inspired I'm crazy. It took me two days to do the first draft!"

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susan.king@latimes.com