Adamson meets Mister Pip

New Zealander Andrew Adamson will direct his own adaptation of Wellington-based Lloyd Jones’ award-winning novel Mister Pip. Producer Robin Scholes, who was behind Once Were Warriors and The Tattooist, plans to film Mister Pip in Australia, post-produce in New Zealand, and complete the sound in the UK. Mister Pip will be principally set in the Papua New Guinea province of Bougainville during an ongoing war between soldiers and rebels over copper mining. It tells the story of a young girl who becomes transfixed by the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations, which is being read at school by the only white man in the village. “The overarching theme is the power of the human imagination to be used for both good and evil,” Scholes told ScreenDaily. A production start date has yet to be confirmed but casting is said to be under way.