As part of an event to celebrate 25 years in business, BBC Films has launched a big new slate of projects. One of the cornerstones will be The Thick Of It’s Armando Iannucci working on a new version of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield with regular collaborator Simon Blackwell{
Iannucci, Blackwell and the company last worked together in 2009 to produce In The Loop, so it makes sense for the writer/producer/director to come back for his next big screen project after several years running HBO series Veep.
Dickens’ book has been adapted for screens big and small many times, unspooling the author’s semi-autobiographical tale of a lad who faces a terrifying, dismissive stepfather and the death of his mother to grow up and find success in later life. So how will Iannucci bring something fresh to the story? "Armando is such a Dickens connoisseur, he’s very passionate about the writing," BBC Films head Christine Langan tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I never think of Dickens about being just one thing and that’s very much the quality Armando shares. There’s a particular view of the world that is both humane and comic; it’s tragi-comic at times. I wouldn’t bank on this being too deadly serious, no way."
Other films in development as part of the announcement include a new** Swallows And Amazons** starring Rafe Spall, adaptations of Julian Barnes’** The Sense Of An Ending** and Patrick Neate’s City Of Tiny Lights and projects which have already been announced, such as Ricky Gervais’ David Brent follow-up Life On The Road, Stephen Frears’ Florence Foster Jenkins and James Marsh’s film about amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst, which stars Colin Firth.