Helen Mirren and Pete Postlethwaite are joining the cast of writer-director Rowan Joffe's adaptation of the Graham Greene novel Brighton Rock.

The duo join Sam Riley, who plays the movie's lead character, Pinkie, and Andrea Riseborough, who will play a waitress blackmailing Pinkie over a gangland revenge killing.

Mirren and Postlethwaite will play Ida and Phil Cokery, a couple who try to expose Pinkie.

The story was made into a 1947 film starring Richard Attenborough.

The new film marks the directorial debut of Joffe, one of the screenwriters of 28 Weeks Later.