What an exciting cast and project this is shaping to be.
Michael Fassbender and Colin Firth have now been confirmed for Tomas Alfredsson’s adaptation of John Le Carre’s spy-thriller “Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy” with Ralph Fiennes also on board to join the previously announced lead Gary Oldman.
Fassbender and Firth had been noted to be in early negotiations last month for “unnamed but vital roles” with the duo now confirmed to be on board. Fiennes, on the other hand, is a fresh face to the project though presumably replaces fellow thespian David Thewlis who is missing from the announcement after being in early talks — it’s bittersweet but a victory nevertheless with the all-star cast in place and two important female roles in the lead’s wife and a matriarchal figure at the agency still up for grabs.
Alfredsson’s “Let The Right One In” follow up is being adapted for the screen by the much sought-after Peter Morgan (“The Queen,” “Frost/Nixon”) with the post-Cold-War set story centering on George Smiley (Oldman), an operative whose task it is to root out a Soviet mole in the highest echelon in the British Intelligence Services. Unlike typical on-screen spy protagonists though, Smiley is described as a “breathtakingly ordinary, anti-James Bond”-type character who should make fascinating viewing. The same character was previously portrayed with acclaim by Alec Guinness in a 1979 BBC television adaptation of ‘Tinker, Tailor.’
Lensing on Alfresson’s take, meanwhile, will begin in London this October for Working Title and Studio Canal.
