Casting rumours emerge for Peter Morgan's spy drama, 'Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy'

04-Jun-2010 • Bond Style

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 -- reports First Showing.

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.