The Playlist

Gary Oldman Says Sequel Could Be A Composite Of 'The Honourable Schoolboy' And 'Smiley's People'It's hard to say that the spy genre doesn't love a franchise. The longest running franchise in cinema history is, of course, the James Bond series, Jason Bourne is Universal's biggest tentpole, and from Harry Palmer to Jack Ryan, if audiences show even a sniff on interest in a character, executives will happily bring them back for future installments, which is why we've had to suffer through things like "xXx2" and "Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London" over the years.

The spy genre, is generally speaking, a euphemism for 'action movie' -- look at the explosions, fistfights and car chases of the Bond films, of the 'Mission: Impossible' series, of the 'Bourne' franchise, none of which have much in the way of actual tradecraft. The business of being a spy is hard, boring work, made up of listening and talking and without a lot of glamor. One of the men who best understands this is novelist John Le Carré, himself a former spy, who for close to half a century has been behind some of the most acclaimed literary examples of the genre. But aside from the much-loved "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold," and the more recent "The Constant Gardener" (the latter not strictly speaking an espionage picture), his works haven't had a huge amount of success on the big screen, lacking the speedboats and fireballs of Ian Fleming or Robert Ludlum. One of the writer's best-known books is "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," the first of the 'Karla' trilogy, which focuses on George Smiley, a middle-aged veteran of 'The Circus' (Le Carré's term for the British intelligence services) and his rivalry with his Soviet counterpart Karla. Working Title Films has spent the last couple of years on a new cinematic take with Tomas Alfredson, director of the much-acclaimed "Let the Right One In," making his English-language debut at the helm. It's no small undertaking, considering that the novel was previously adapted as a much-loved, seven-part, 290-minute BBC miniseries, headed up by an indelible performance from the great Alec Guinness. Alfredson might have assembled an all-star cast of British talent to bring the book to life, but could the company, led by Gary Oldman taking up Smiley's thick glasses, hope to match their predecessors? And could the film manage to keep the plot coherent and thrilling at a running time less than half of what the TV take had to play with?

Author John Le Carre & Cast Discuss The AdaptationWith the breathtaking trailer and poster combo recently unveiled, our excitement for Tomas Alfredson's adaptation of John Le Carre's "Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy" is sky high at the moment. Adding to that is the expectation that the film will pop up in one, or both, of the line ups for the Venice (having been invited to open) and Toronto International Film Festivals when they're announced in the coming weeks.

Wow. Maybe it's just the way our brains are wired, but we just saw more fireworks from 70-odd seconds of middle-aged British character actors than we got across two-and-a-half-hours of empty spectacle in "Transformers: Dark of the Moon." The Guardian just debuted the first international teaser trailer for one of our most anticipated films of the rest of the year, Working Title's adaptation of John Le Carre's spy classic "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy," the English-language debut of "Let The Right One In" director Tomas Alfredson, and it's easily one of the best trailers we've seen in an age.