The first international trailer has debuted for Mike Newell’s Great Expectations.  The adaptation of Charles Dickens’ literary classic will make its world premiere at TIFF this September, but the trailer gives quite an extensive look at the film.  Great Expectations stars Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham, Ralph Fiennes as Magwitch, as well as Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) as Pip, Holliday Grainger (The Borgias) as Estella, with Robbie Coltrane (Harry Potter), Jason Flemyng (X-Men: First Class), and Sally Hawkins (Happy Go Lucky).  Hit the jump to watch the new international trailer.

It was the best of times in Gotham City, it was the worst of times in Gotham City.  At this weekend’s press day for The Dark Knight Rises, director Christopher Nolan and co-writer Jonathan Nolan explained how the end of their Batman trilogy was influenced by Charles Dickens‘ 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities.  The connection makes sense since all the marketing shows us a Gotham crumbling in a way that’s similar to the destruction in the days leading up to the French Revolution in Dickens’ novel.

Hit the jump for how the Nolans explained the intentional similarity between their movie and Dickens’ book.  The Dark Knight Rises opens July 20th.

Director Mike Newell (Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time) will direct an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations.  From what I gathered about the tale when South Park adapted it, it’s about an old woman who uses the tears of men to power her Genesis device.  Of course, the more famous adaptation is David Lean’s 1948 film and the book was adapted again in 1998 with Alfonso Cuaron at the helm and starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Ethan Hawke, Anne Bancroft, and Robert De Niro.  Strangely, neither Lean nor Cuaron’s versions featured the Genesis device.  THR reports that Newell will have a “fresh take” on the material, but doesn’t specify if Newell will go classic like Lean’s version, modern like Cuaron’s, or absurd like South Park.

Newell’s Great Expectations will be part of the Dickens’ bicentenary in 2012.  Hit the jump for a real (read: no Genesis device) synopsis of Dickens’ classic novel.

It was recently announced that writer/director Armando Iannucci would follow up the uproarious Brit-comedy In the Loop with Out The Window, a recount of the secret love affair between renowned author Charles Dickens and actress Nelly Ternan.  It seems that it is merely the best of times, as the Victorian project is attracting some serious talent: The Observer reports Oscar-winner Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood) is now the frontrunner to portray Dickens in the biopic, with Ben Whishaw (Bright Star) also in the running.

Iannucci will also take on scripting duties with co-writers Roger Drew and Will Smith, who wrote for the BBC series The Thick of It on which In the Loop was based. Slated for release sometime in 2011,  Out the Window is based on Claire Tomalin’s biography, The Invisible Woman.