Sensibility is a crucial ingredient for turning books into movies. Why do it? Why are you doing it? We have to feel your feeling, especially when the book is about 170 years old. But something about Charles Dickens’s “David Copperfield” seems to want the irreverence of the man responsible for “In the Loop” and “Veep” and “The Death of Stalin.” Yes, Armando Iannucci is doing Dickens’s first truly great novel, and he’s made Dev Patel his David. The movie, called “The Personal History of David Copperfield,” is keeping things in the 19th century. So what will this satirist’s penchant for third-degree banter and sloshing social engagements locate in this giant book about maturing through misfortune? Will it address that Patel is of South Asian descent, that Davy’s benefactors and antagonists (Ben Whishaw is playing conniving Uriah Heep!) are white? Will it care? The real excitement is that Patel, who was also good as a duped assassin in last year’s “The Wedding Guest,” might get to do more in a movie than be a sidekick or symbol. WESLEY MORRIS

A Haunting Memory Play Returns