Despite all the festive frippery sitting in the shops, we at Empire Towers figured it was a bit early to start getting Christmas cards. Still, we were delighted to get a look at what we can only assume is Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton’s festive offering in… Wait… Sorry, no, we’re being told this is actually the first look at Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham in the new Great Expectations. Well, it’s an easy mistake to make.
Yes, premiering over at Deadline, these are indeed the first two pics of Carter playing the slowly desiccating Havisham, a woman torn apart by emotional injuries sustained when she's jilted at the altar, who is raising her adoptive daughter Estella (Holliday Grainger) as the sort of cold-yet-sexy woman who steals men’s hearts and then pops them into her Cuisinart before hitting “blend”.
Mike Newell is directing this latest effort to bring Charles Dickens’ much-adapted tome to the screen, with Ralph Fiennes playing mysterious criminal Magwitch, recent Empire office visitor Jason Flemyng as Joe Gargery, Robbie Coltrane as Mr Jaggers, Sally Hawkins as Mrs Joe and, in the central role, War Horse’s Jeremy Irvine as Pip, the lad who tries to win Estella’s affections.
Great Expectations will arrive next autumn, though there’s no solid release date yet. It’s being produced as part of the Dickens bicentenary celebrations. What larks, Pip!