Mike Newell, who last helmed Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, is set to direct a new take on the Charles Dickens book “Great Expectations” which is expected to be released in 2012.
The film will be produced by Oscar-winning producer Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen. The movie will detail “the story of a humble orphan who winds up as a gentleman following the largesse of an unknown benefactor.”
David Lean previously took on the material in a 1984 black and white adaptation and next year, the BBC will run a “BBC Dickens” season in celebration of the author’s bicentenary.
The Hollywood Reporter adds that “the British Film Institute is also planning the largest ever retrospective of film and television adaptations of Dickens’ work which will go on a global tour in 2012 taking in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Cinematheque Francaise in Paris.”
