The first trailer is online for writer-director Rowan Joffé's Brighton Rock, the second silver screen adaptation of the acclaimed novel by Graham Greene. Brighton Rock is Joffé's first feature film as director, although he is already renowned as a screenwriter for 28 Weeks Later and The American, and is said to be a re-imagining of the book rather than a remake of the 1947 film.  Brighton Rock depicts the curious relationship between a young British gangster and a tea room waitress who witnessed a crime he committed. Sam Riley, whose last big feature was his breakout role as Ian Curtis in Control, stars as main character, Pinkie, alongside Andrea Riseborough (Made In Dagenham) as his love interest, Rose. Andy Serkis, Helen Mirren and John Hurt also star.

Hit the jump for the trailer.  Brighton Rock is to be released in the UK on February 4, 2011, but there's no word yet on when it opens in the US.

Trailer via The Guardian, who praise the film as "A Masterpiece". For more images from the film, click here.

Brighton Rock is a novel that has been visited time and again for adaptations, for radio, theatre and film, most famously in the iconic 1947 British film noir starring Richard Attenborough. Joffé has tweaked the story somewhat, for instance moving era from the 1930s setting of the novel to 1964, a period when working class gangsters like the Kray Twins were on the rise, and the death penalty in Britain was in it's final year.

The trailer seems to pitch the film as more of a love story than an all out crime thriller per say, although Riley previously stated that there would be "more violence, more religious confusion" and more "sexual anxiety" than in the original movie. That doesn't exactly come across, but we'll have to wait and see. Nonetheless, it's a decent enough trailer, conjuring an intriguing dark atmosphere against an ominous musical score (by Martin Phipps).