The poster

When a director chooses to adapt a 'classic' work of fiction for the screen, they can choose to create a 'period' drama, with costumes that modern audiences associate with the time the book was set or written, or to produce a 'modern adaptation'.

Examine the poster for the film. From looking closely at details in the poster, what impression do you have of the style of the film production?

Extension task

• What can you find out about previous adaptations of the film? When were they produced, who made them and where were they shown? How successful do they seem to have been?
• Referring to the poster, the synopsis for the film and your knowledge of the novel, what aspects of the plot of
  Great Expectations do you think are easy to understand for modern audiences, and what parts do you think are very specific to the time in which the story is set? What parts of the novel do you think might be changed, or omitted, in a film version?