Coming Soon - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

In just over two weeks one of the best if not the best examples of a British ensemble cast will bring to the big screen an adaptation of John Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Some members of the British public more long in the tooth might remember the stellar 1979 BBC adaption starring Alec Guinness that had audiences hooked as well as the sequel Smiley's People in 1982. Now new audiences will have the chance to experience what is considered the best spy novel ever written with this new film starring Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Stephen Graham.

This stellar cast is being led by Swedish director Tomas Alredson, the man who floored us Let the Right One In two years ago. Gary Oldman has replaced the iconic character of George Smiley who was previously played by Guinness, these factors plus the fact that Le Carre let the cast and director have free reign over his creation and has since been blown away with what he has seen on set and in subsequent screenings means that we should be in for a real cinematic gem on Sept 16th. The story focusses on Smiley during the days of the Cold War who has been pulled out of semi-retirement to track down a Soviet mole who has been operating within MI6 echelons for some time.

One of the main reasons why Le Carre's spy books are so highly thought of (despite his excellent writing style and descriptive nuances) is that he worked for MI5 and MI6 during the Cold War, his novels are therefore a trip into a world we (gladly) know nothing about and also function as detailed mental analyses of what it takes to be a spy and what it can cost a person.

With La Carre apparently over the moon with the finished project, the best British cast brought together in recent years, and a promising director that has shown how to reflect complex emotions in long stretches of silence along with an assured visual approach Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011) is a film to etch into diaries because if there is any justice this film should be one of the major cultural highlights of the year.