Here's our first look at Brit actors
Tom Hardy and
Christian McKay in
Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy, a fresh adaptation of the seminal spy novel from John Le Carre that smartly retains it's 1970's, Cold War setting. That explains the dodgy hair cuts and dated attire of the two men above! The
Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon, The Queen) scripted adaptation marks the Hollywood debut of
Tomas Alfredson, the Swedish director of
Let The Right One In and has that kind of acting ensemble that leaves you breathless when you just reel off the names...
Gary Oldman leads as George Smiley (a role made famous by Alec Guiness some decades ago) who comes out of retirement to hunt down a Soviet mole in the Circus, the highest department of MI6; Hardy is Ricky Tarr, a Brit operative who lends a helping hand;
Colin Firth is a senior intelligence figure.
Mark Strong has a substantial role as Circus agent Jim Prideaux, a part I think that was originally attached to Ralph Fiennes. Then there's Sherlock Holmes and Prof. Moriarty, as actors
Benedict Cumberbatch and
Jared Harris support in currently unspecified roles.
Ciaran Hinds, Stephen McGraham and
Simon McBurney are also in this. Pretty much a who's who of British character actors. Russian actress
Svetlana Khodchenko has the key role of Russian spy Irina, who I presume is the goal in the rain (and is that Ciaran Hinds with her?)...
The Daily Mail has proved to be the news outlet of choice for the movie and there's two quotes, one given by Working Title producer
Tim Bevan and the other by Gary Oldman, that just has me absurdly excited. First, Bevan praised Morgan's script;
"He's made it dialogue-free a lot of the time. It's quite masterful. For instance, a tiny hand movement can signify something of great importance, and the nuance in somebody's expression can mean something major."
We imagine it was the dialogue-free script where direction was key that brought the producers to approach the helmer of Let The Right One In?
And Oldman, whose first look was revealed a little while ago (above) said;
Its proper work, and I havent done that for a long time. Ive played some amazing roles and Ive had a good run, but this is something else. And its like coming home. I cant remember the last time I played an Englishman.
For our money, this is one of the more promising movies that awaits us in 2011 (expect this one in September or later) and hopefully it's good and finds an audience, we will see the other Le Carre/Smiley novels
The Honourable Schoolboy and
Smileys People for a full trilogy.
