Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) began shooting the newest adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations in the UK on October 10 with a script from David Nicholls (One Day) and an impressive British led cast including War Horse star Jeremy Irvine as Pip alongside Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham, Ralph Fiennes as Magwitch, Robbie Coltrane as Mr. Jaggers, Jason Flemyng as Joe Gargery, Sally Hawkins as Mrs. Joe and Holliday Grainger as Estella.
The film is still looking for a stateside distributor while Lionsgate will release it in the UK in the fall of 2012 and as production moves forward Deadline has debuted a pair of first look images of Bonham Carter as the iconic Miss Havisham. Shrouded in the aging fabric of her wedding dress designed by Beatrix Aruna Pasztor, Deadline’s Tim Adler describes the images writing:
Miss Havisham is an iconic character over here in Britain: an embittered spinster who sits in her mouldering mansion still wearing the wedding dress she wore when she was jilted at the altar; she has trained her adopted daughter Estella to break men’s hearts just as her heart was broken.
I read “Great Expectations” in high school but as far as filmed adaptations go I believe David Lean’s Oscar-winning 1947 adaptation is the only one I’ve watched and it’s well worth it.
It will be interesting to see where this one ends up and it’s a bit surprising it hasn’t found an American distributor yet considering we’re talking about classic material and an impressive cast.
All that said, have a look at the two new images below and you can click on either of them for a larger look.
