Subject: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Sun Aug 28, 2011 11:47 am
John le Carré's 1974 novel is getting the big screen treatment, it was adapted for the BBC back in 1979 with Alec Guinness as George Smiley. This time, it's Gary Oldman as Smiley, an aging, retired spy who is brought out of retirement to help find a mole working within the Secret Intelligence Service or MI6. Smiley's boss Control (John Hurt) has narrowed who he thinks the mole is down to a few people, Percy Alleline (Toby Jones), Bill Haydon (Colin Firth), Roy Bland (Ciarán Hinds), Toby Esterhase (David Dencik) and even Smiley himself. But, Smiley is appointed to spy on the spies, and who's leaking information to the Soviets.
It looks very good indeed, and it has the best film cast of the year, in addition to above, there's also Mark Strong (he's in everything), Tom Hardy (also in everything), Stephen Graham, Benedict Cumberbatch and Kathy Burke. This should also make a good antidote to high-tech spy films around at the moment, this is set in the 1970's, as John le Carré's novel was, a time when the Soviets were a bigger threat than what we're facing today. But, this looks to be a complex, engaging film, a think piece. Something you don't get enough of these days.
It's out here on September 16th, and even now, there's talk of Oscar gold for this one. It's director is Tomas Alfredson, who did Let The Right One In (2008), a different kettle of fish to this indeed. But, he'll be perfect to capture the bleakness and drabness of MI6 in the 1970's. Plus, it has the best of British in the cast.
