The brilliant Hugh Laurie will be making his return to the big screen for the first time since the end of House with Mr. Pip, confirmed as making its world debut at the Toronto International Film Festival this September.

Until now, all has been fairly quiet with the project since its original announcement, but now we’ve got our first look at Laurie in the lead alongside his co-star, Xzannjah Matsi.

“Living under the shadow of the Papa New Guinean civil war, an eccentric schoolteacher (Hugh Laurie) forms a unique bond with a young girl (Xzannjah Matsi) over their shared love for Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, in director Andrew Adamson’s (Shrek, The Chronicles of Narnia) lusciously beautiful adaptation of the award-winning novel by Lloyd Jones.”

Andrew Adamson, the Oscar-nominated writer-director behind Shrek and The Chronicles of Narnia, is directing from his own script, adapting the original novel by Lloyd Jones.

Still no word on when we can expect this to hit theatres, but with Laurie in the lead, we’re expecting it will be quickly snapped up after its debut in Toronto this September, and we’ll hopefully be seeing it sooner rather than later. As usual with this first look image, you can click to enlarge.