If you wanted to imagine how “Veep” creator Armando Iannucci might put his own farcical spin on the Charles Dickens classic for “The Personal History of David Copperfield,” look no further than a scene of Ben Whishaw and Tilda Swinton slapping each other back and forth.
The first trailer for Searchlight Pictures’ “The Personal History of David Copperfield” shows a crowd-pleasing, silly and satirical period piece starring Dev Patel as the classic title character. And the film also assembles some of Iannucci’s other favorites from “In the Loop” and “Avenue 5,” including Hugh Laurie and Peter Capaldi.
“London is full of wonders and wickedness, and it’s our David to go wherever we choose,” Capaldi says with a smile. “Hold on not down there. Creditors make that road impossible. Two tailors and a most unreasonable muffin man.”
“The Personal History of David Copperfield” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. It’s Iannucci’s third film following “In the Loop” and “The Death of Stalin.” He co-wrote the film with Simon Blackwell based on Dickens’ novel.
Tilda Swinton, Hugh Laurie, Peter Capaldi, Ben Whishaw, Paul Whitehouse, Aneurin Barnard, Daisy May Cooper, Morfydd Clark, Benedict Wong, Gwendoline Christie, Anthony Welsh and Rosalind Eleazar all co-star in the film.
Searchlight Pictures will release the movie on May 9. Watch the first trailer above.