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Gary Oldman Cast in UK Spy Film 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'

by Ethan Anderton
June 4, 2010

Gary Oldman / Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

With MGM's financial woes putting another installment of James Bond on indefinite hold, now there's room for what The Daily Mail calls "the anti-James Bond" as they report director Tomas Alfredson (of Let the Right One In) will helm an adaptation of John Le Carre's British spy novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the story of a Soviet mole at the heart of the secret intelligence service MI6. Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon, The Queen) is penning the script and Gary Oldman is in negotiations to play the lead as George Smiley, who, unlike 007 is "breathtakingly ordinary." There's even more good news ahead for this project. Read on!

Colin Firth, Michael Fassbender and David Thewlis are in early discussions to play other roles in the film, like various intelligence chiefs and bureaucrats who are under suspicion of being the Soviet mole. Of course those discussions are on-going, but producers are looking to grab big names for all of those roles, so if those three don't come through, you can expect more casting down the road. This will be the first venture to the big screen for Smiley, who was only previously seen in the 1979 TV series with the late Alec Guiness. This combination of talent is pretty epic, and we'll need a great spy thriller to fill the lack of Jamess Bond.

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Lerryjee

The original with Sir Alec Guiness (Obi Wan from original Star Wars), was brilliant as George Smiley. Please do not dumb it down for us Americans. We can handle it.
lumière

the Alec Guinness Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a masterpiece. like Lerryjee says, fans of dumbed down stories or Bayhem need not apply, but fans of well scripted, well acted and directed spy thrillers should be pretty happy. if we *have* to have a new version... the suggested cast for this does look like quality. if anyone can follow a screen legend like Guinness in a role he made his own, it could definitely be Oldman. the book was well played out over a 7 episode series - they'd have to cram in quite a lot or judiciously edit out aspects to fit it into a single film. the series does look like it was made when it was, but that's no bad thing. in fact, i hope they set it in the time of the book and don't contemporise it. if you only know Alec Guinness from Star Wars, you're missing out on one of the finest actors of the 20th Century. check out his starring role in The Ladykillers (and to get a perspective on how bad the Coen Brothers version was - Hanks is just not Guinness), Bridge on the River Kwai, as Fagin in the '48 Oliver Twist or Kind Hearts & Coronets (he plays 8 characters!). yes, these are older films - sorry, no 3D. {;-) or read any of his autobiographies.