Summer's over — it's time to add a little literature to your cinema.
Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations" is a story that's been adapted to film many times over, but luckily it's always a story worth telling. And this new adaptation by director Mike Newell looks to be one of the best ones yet.
Newell recruited many of the new friends he made on "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" to help him tell the classic tale of young Pip (Jeremy Irvine) and the sudden bit of good fortune given to him by a mysterious benefactor — and the various complications (romantic and otherwise) that come with and because of this unexpected gift.
Ralph Fiennes plays Magwitch and Robbie Coltrane plays Mr. Jaggers, which is brilliant casting on both counts — though not quite as brilliant as Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Havisham. Really, if there was ever a role Carter was born to play, it's that of Pip's eccentric guardian with the truly bizarro wardrobe.
[And yes, Carter wasn't in "Goblet of Fire," but the power of influence of Bellatrix Lestrange was certainly felt in the fourth "Potter" film.]
Check out the international trailer below, and thanks to The Playlist for the find. "Great Expectations" doesn't have a U.S. release date yet but will premiere this fall at the Toronto International Film Festival.
