Connect with us

Film Festivals

Mike Newell’s Great Expectations Will Close The 56th BFI London Film Festival

In breaking news this morning we have just heard that Mike Newell’s GREAT EXPECTATIONS is set to close the 2012 BFI London Film Festival, and at the same time make its European premiere. We saw the film a couple of weeks ago and you’ll get our views on it as soon as we are allowed to unleash the review on the site. The flick, which stars a sea of British talent including Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes and Jeremy Irvine, will screen as the curtain falls on the 56th LFF on Sunday 21st October.

Director Newell said: “It’s a great honour to be invited to be the BFI London Film Festival’s Closing Night film. I’m proud that our new version of Great Expectations should be presented this year, the bi-centenary of Dickens’ birth. I’ve tried to make a film that is true to the theatrical vividness, energetic characters and high colour that he is loved for, while mining the deep seams of emotional cruelty and madness that underlie one of Dickens’ darkest-shadowed stories. I’ve tried to make a film for a young modern audience in which Pip and Estella’s fated love affair is shown through feelings and stresses that are of today and in a city that was, then, full of brawling energy, was unimaginably wealthy and very bad..”

Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes and Mike Newell are expected to attend the Festival.

Myself and Fordy will be bringing you the full programme of movies from a special event in Leicester Square next Wednesday and THN’s (almost) entire team will be bringing you coverage of the festival itself as it kicks off on Wednesday 10th October.

Here’s the full release annoucning the closing film.

The 56thBFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express is delighted to announce that this year’s Festival will close on Sunday 21 October with the European Premiere of GREAT EXPECTATIONS taking place at the Odeon Leicester Square, directed by acclaimed film-maker Mike Newell, adapted by David Nicholls and starring Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes and Jeremy Irvine as Pip, alongside an outstanding British cast.

Young orphan Pip is given a chance to rise from his humble beginnings thanks to a mysterious benefactor. Moving through London’s class-ridden world as a gentleman, Pip uses his new-found position to pursue the beautiful Estella, a spoilt heiress he’s loved since childhood. Yet the shocking truth behind this great fortune will have devastating consequences for everything he holds dear.

Starring an award-winning cast, including Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Jeremy Irvine, Holliday Grainger, Robbie Coltrane, Ewen Bremner, Jason Flemyng, Sally Hawkins, David Walliams and Tamzin Outhwaite, this British tour de force is directed by the BAFTA-winning director of Four Weddings and A Funeral and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Mike Newell. Written for the big screen by David Nicholls, the acclaimed writer of the global best-seller One Day, this adaptation of Dickens’ finest novel is produced by award-winning partners at Number 9 Films, Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley (Made in Dagenham, How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, The Crying Game). Producers for Unison Films are Emanuel Michael and David Faigenblum, and the film has been financed by BBC Films, the BFI Film Fund, Lipsync Productions, Unison Films and Hart/Lunsford Pictures.

The film will be released by Lionsgate on 30th November 2012 in the UK.

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Latest Posts

More in Film Festivals