Charles Dickens‘s bicentennial is coming in 2012, and a Great Expectations adaptation from director Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time) is one step closer to coming with it. Baz Bamigboye at the Daily Mail reports Ralph Fiennes has been approached and is in talks to join the cast as Magwitch.

Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) is locked in to play Pip, an orphan boy who encounters an escaped convict named Magwitch, a shut-in named Miss Havisham and her beautiful daughter, Estella, and others during the 30 years the novel follows him.

Helena Bonham Carter is currently in talks to play Miss Havisham. Babigboye cautions in his report that her schedule is more likely than Fiennes’s to allow for the rushed schedule needed to release the film in time. Fiennes and Newell did work together on Harry Potter, so it’s possible they’ll be able to work something out.

Written by Rowan Joffe (The American), Great Expectations was rumored by The Playlist to have trouble finding funds after the BBC greenlit a three-part made for TV version. With Fiennes and/or Bonham Carter on board, the money will come a little easier.

If everything works out, you can expect Great Expectations in 2012.