"To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim."
~ Oscar Wilde, The Preface, The Picture Of Dorian Gray

Based on Oscar Wilde's 1890-91 gothic horror novel, this incarnation stars Ben Chaplin as Basil Hallward, Colin Firth as Lord Henry Wotton and Ben Barnes (the London-born hot property of The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian) in another eponymous role as Dorian Gray, the very picture of vanity.

The trailer exposes a few fleeting glimpses of that portrait, but it was always a tall order to top the eerie reveal of the 1945 production, shot entirely in black-and-white up until the unveiling of the horrific painting in all its garish full-colour gory glory. Here, some unexpected snatched peeks look like this newest treatment just might be up to the challenge to unnerve and alarm in its own ways.

It's also apparent this version delves and dives more fully into the pleasure-seeking and debauchery where only a toe was dipped in the book and hardly hinted at in the '45 film. (Parts of the original story itself were excised, rewritten and watered down by Wilde and editors due to passages considered controversial in the 19th century.)

You'll find the trailer below (although the background music is a little too foreground for clear dialogue), followed by a second video of Ben Barnes and his thoughts on the part, and the painting, which includes the scene that instigates the whole downward spiral and eventual fate of Dorian Gray...

Dorian Gray is released on 9 September 2009 in the UK.