Great Expectations: The Untold Story

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Great Expectations: The Untold Story
Directed by Tim Burstall
Written byTim Burstall
Based on Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens
Produced byTom Burstall
Ray Alchin
executive
Antony I. Ginnane
Christopher Muir
associate
Sigrid Thornton
Starring Sigrid Thornton
Anne-Louise Lambert
John Stanton
Robert Coleby
Noel Ferrier
Ron Haddrick
Danny Simmons
Todd Boyce
Bruce Spence
CinematographyPeter Hendry
Edited byTony Kavanaugh
Lyn Solly
John Pryce-Jones
Music byGeorge Dreyfus
Production
companies
Hemdale Film Corporation
International Film Management
Distributed byABC (Australian TV)
Filmpac (video)
Release date
  • 7 February 1987 (1987-02-07)
Running time
102 mins (film version)
3 × 2 hours (TV version)
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
BudgetA$5,970,077 [1] [2]

Great Expectations: The Untold Story is a 1987 Australian film which was made as a feature film and a mini series. [3]

Contents

It is based on an account of what happened to Magwitch from the novel Great Expectations when he was in Australia. [4]

Plot

Magwitch is sentenced to life in New South Wales. He is put on a chain gang run by Solomon Tooth and eventually amasses a fortune.

Cast

Production

The film was the idea of Tom Burstall, who made it with his director father Tim. Tim Burstall says in the writing of it he was influenced by a book by Price Waring, Tales of the Old Convict System. [5] It was filmed in Sydney from 9 March to 11 July 1986. [3]

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References

  1. "Australian Productions Top $175 million", Cinema Papers, March 1986 p64
  2. "TIMESTYLE tv radio chess Nuclear attack drama most powerful yet". The Canberra Times . Vol. 59, no. 18, 164. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 23 June 1985. p. 13. Retrieved 14 February 2017 via National Library of Australia.
  3. 1 2 Ed. Scott Murray, Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995, Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p70, 201-202
  4. David Stratton, The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry, Pan MacMillan, 1990 p187-188
  5. Interview with Tim Burstall, 30 March 1998 Archived 15 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 14 October 2012