We Can't Wait: BRIGHTON ROCK

Dave here, trying to resist whinging and moaning about the fact no one wanted to see this but me. (Idiots.)

BRIGHTON ROCK
Directed by: Rowan Joffe (yes, son of him who directed The Killing Fields)
Starring: Sam Riley, Andrea Riseborough, Helen Mirren, John Hurt

Sam Riley on the set of Brighton Rock

Synopsis: The second film adaptation of Graham Greene's Brighton Rock, where a violent youth named Pinkie murders a man and marries a naive waitress who could destroy his alibi, pursued by a suspicious older woman who both wants to bring him to justice and protect the innocent girl.
Brought to you by: BBC Films and Optimum Releasing (one of the best distributors in the UK)
Expected release date: No word; could even be next year... I do back the wrong horses, don't I?

I didn't really mean for my first appearance in this countdown project to be so... British, but I suppose it was foolish of me to expect much excitement elsewhere when my main reason for looking forward to this is so personal; I practically dissected Graham Greene's novel in high school, and anything that can survive that amount of scrutinization with love intact is something special indeed. The first adaptation back in 1947 is mostly famous for being Richard Attenborough's breakthrough role, and it's surprising the amount of things they got away with back then. But surely this will be a fuller, more visceral adaptation, merely because it can be. Although the central appeal of film noir is its darkly suggestive nature; let's hope they resist spelling everything out for us modern day folk.

the 1938 "entertainment" by Graham Green| the 1947 film version

Of course, films of books you love are always risky propositions (there's another one later on in the countdown), but the cast tips this my scales in favour of excitement; the ever-reliable John Hurt, the "better in supporting roles, AMPAS" Helen Mirren and two rising stars in Sam Riley, who impressed as Ian Curtis in Control, and Andrea Riseborough, who's been making marks in TV work, most notably as a young Margaret Thatcher. We just have to hope Joffe the Younger - who also wrote the screenplay, pulling the story forward slightly from the 1930s to the 1960s - has a knack for transferring the novel's compulsive moral intricacies on-screen and lives up to Greene's lean, highly cinematic style.

So what do you think, readers? Are you looking forward to chewing on some Brighton rock? Or do you think this new batch should've been left behind the counter?

"We Can't Wait: Summer and Beyond"
The "orphan" picks Nathaniel (Burlesque), JA (Love and Other Drugs), Jose (You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger), Craig (What's Wrong With Virginia?), Robert (True Grit) and Dave (Brighton Rock); Team Film Experience Countdown #12 It's Kind of a Funny Story, #11 Sex & the City 2, #10 Scott Pilgrim vs the World, #9 Somewhere, #8 The Kids Are All Right, #7 The Illusionist, #6 Toy Story 3, #5 Inception, #4 Rabbit Hole, #3 Never Let Me Go, #2 Black Swan and #1 The Tree of Life.