Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (film version)

[JVerity]

I read that Peter Morgan, who wrote The Queen, is working on, among several other things, a script for a new version of le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Here:



http://www.obsessedwithfilm.com/movi...ever-sleep.php



"Working Title and Imagine Entertainment are financing the project."





Strikes me as difficult, if not impossible, to outdo BBC's and Alec Guinness's Smiley of - yikes! - almost 30 years ago, but who knows?



John in NJ

[Marky B]

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is one the most sublime drama programmes in television history and Sir Alec's performance as the beleaguered spy is certainly one of,or the most outstanding of all time.

Ta Ta

Marky B

[batman]

It would have to be a very condensed version of the story. Part of the enjoyment, for me anyway, was to watch great actors working in such an unhurried way. At times it was almost like being at the theatre, but different, if that makes any sense. To watch a feature film version would seem like watching edited highlights.



Bats.

[JVerity]

Indeed, the original Tinker, Tailor works so well because it is stretched out. I love that feeling of getting to the end of an episode, or even a whole disk, each with two parts, and wondering, shall I go for the next part? Even several times of watching the entire thing has not diminished the suspense.



I didn't witness it, but I understand its week by week showing on BBC in 1979 soon had Britain fixated. Eventually, betting parlors were even taking bets on who the mole was.



Ah the good old days, when war was cold and as a medium, TV was hot. (!)

[samkydd]

I read that Peter Morgan, who wrote The Queen, is working on, among several other things, a script for a new version of le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. John in NJ

What on earth is the point? There must be millions of decent books out there that haven't been dramatised, probably a few thousand spy novels amongst them!



I think people who do remakes should donate all their profits to charity, then they might learn their craft a bit better and try something new instead!

[Cassandra]

Why, why, why?



It was perfect the first time. They'll never get an ensemble cast as good -- Guinness, Richardson, Hepton, Jayston, Alexander Knox, Sian Phillips, and just about everyone else right down to the smallest roles.



I guess it's not just American movie and tv executives who are this boneheaded.

[Geoffers]

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is one the most sublime drama programmes in television history and Sir Alec's performance as the beleaguered spy is certainly one of,or the most outstanding of all time.

Ta Ta

Marky B

Absolutely right. But it wasn't just Sir Alec who made this series a classic. It was wonderfully cast throughout and it's hard to imagine any re-make getting an ensemble together which matches actors of the calibre of such as Michael Jayston, Ian Bannen, Anthony Bate, George Sewell, Terence Rigby, Alexander Knox, John Standing - I could go on and on, but you get the point.



The music was also outstanding.

[DB7]

Tinker, tailor, soldier, film star





Francesca Martin

Wednesday June 4, 2008

The Guardian



John le Carré's hit thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is to hit the big screen. The author, whose real name is David Cornwall, is at work with the scriptwriter Peter Morgan on a film adaptation of the novel, first published in 1974 as the first instalment in a trilogy about cold war spies. To be produced by Working Title - the production company behind most of the British film industry's biggest hits - it will be the first feature-film version of the novel, which was made into a television series starring Alec Guinness in 1979. According to Morgan - whose other recent credits include the forthcoming films State of Play, Frost/Nixon and The Damned United - le Carré is full of sage advice: "'When you return to earlier work,' he cautioned, 'you feel two rather unpleasant emotions. One is God, this is awful, and the other is how can I ever write something as good ever again?'"

[Chevyman]

I don't really see the point.......artistically.



The original was such a perfect union. We'll see?

[Third Man]

If it creates interest in the original series again then that's a good thing and who knows we might actually get the adaptation of The Honourable Schoolboy now.



But the big question is who the hell is going to play Smiley - what a tuff character to take on after Guiness made it his own.



Simon

[CaptainWaggett]

Peter Morgan is a brilliant scriptwriter. I think he could do something very interesting with this.

[mysteriesofedgarwallace]

Strange, I thought the reason TTSS was a TV adaptation was because le Carré felt it couldn't be abridged into a film.

[DB7]

Swedish director Tomas Alfredson has signed on to direct an adaptation of John Le Carré’s Cold War spy novel, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, for Working Title Films.



Alfredson, director of vampire movie Let The Right On In, will start shooting next year. It will be his first English-language film.



Oscar-nominated screenwriter Peter Morgan, who previously worked with Working Title on Frost/Nixon, is writing the film and also acting as executive producer,



The feature will be produced by Working Title’s co-chairman Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, with Le Carré, Debra Hayward and Liza Chasin are also executive producing.



Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy tells the story of a retired British intelligence officer who is asked to seek out one of the men – a Russian spy - in the senior ranks of his old agency. It was made into a BAFTA-winning and Emmy nominated TV series, starring Alec Guinness, in the Seventies.



Bevan said: “The timing is right for a new screen version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier,Spy so it’s great for us to be able to continue our creative collaboration with Peter Morgan on this and to have Tomas onboard who we’ve no doubt will bring a unique vision to the material.”

[HUGHJAMPTON]

Michael Gambon, perhaps as Smiley, and his one time co-star Patrick Malahide as Bill Haydon.



I do agree with some of the earlier posts, it needs the length of a TV series to open out. The length, adds to the paranoia of the world of spies.

[Marky B]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz....html?ITO=1490



Ta Ta

Marky B

[narabdela]

Too thin for Le Carre's vision of Smiley. It's a pity Simon Russell Beale's not a box office draw.

[Windthrop]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz....html?ITO=1490



Ta Ta

Marky B

He's joining a distinguished roster



Rupert Davies

James Mason

Alec Guinness

George Cole

Simon Russell Beale

Arthur Lowe

Denholm Elliott

[CaptainWaggett]

He's joining a distinguished roster



Rupert Davies

James Mason

Alec Guinness

George Cole

Simon Russell Beale

Arthur Lowe

Denholm Elliott

Bernard Hepton has also played him on radio.

[theuofc]

http://www.dailymail...e.html?ITO=1490



Ta Ta

Marky B

I wish Oldman well. Yet, for me, no one will ever replace Alec Guinness as George Smiley. If memory serves, LeCarre liked Guinness' portrayal and had him in mind as he wrote Smiley's People.











Barbara

[Windthrop]

Bernard Hepton has also played him on radio.

Hadn't realised about Hepton - he would have been very good I can imagine