Director Tomas Alfredson’s adaptation of the John le Carre spy novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was a bit of a surprise success last year, grossing over $80 million against a relatively small budget and earning Gary Oldman his first ever Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Given le Carre’s numerous novels, Alfredson and the folks at Working Title began to mull over the possibility of adapting another one of the books for a sequel, but movement on that front has been relatively quiet as of late.
Steve recently got to interview producer Eric Fellner while attending the press day for Working Title’s upcoming musical adaptation Les Miserables, and Fellner provided a promising update on the sequel to Tinker Tailor. Hit the jump to see what he had to say.
When word broke that a follow-up to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was being considered, Oldman revealed that they were thinking about developing the novel Smiley’s People as the Tinker Tailor sequel. The story involves Oldman’s George Smiley being called out of retirement for the last time, so it would provide another great avenue for Oldman to further develop the Smiley character.
Steve asked Fellner about the status of the sequel, and he revealed that work is already underway:
“We are working on another one. [Producer] Tim Bevan is putting it together as we speak with [screenwriter] Peter Straughan and Tomas Alfredson, so yes it’s in development.”
Straughan co-wrote Tinker Tailor alongside Bridget O’Connor, and it appears that the scribe has been brought back to pen the sequel for Alfredson. Fellner added that while it’s taking some time, everyone is eager to get the follow-up made:
“It did unbelievably well and it didn’t cost hardly anything… But things take time. Tim is passionate about making sure we do another one.”
Look for Steve’s full interview with Fellner closer to the release of Les Miserables.
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Still blows my mind this was Oldman’s first nomination
Am I the only one who was both confused and bored by this movie? I mean, it was well-made, looked good, and had strong acting, but half the time I had no idea what was going on, and also didn’t particularly care.
Understandable reaction. My father and I had the same reaction to the film (confusing, though not necessarily boring), and we both had already seen the BBC mini-series. It’s definitely not a film you can see just once and understand everything, but if you watch it a second time with certain plot points and characters in mine, it’s actually one of the better recent thrillers. I’ve seen it maybe three times and I actually prefer it to the mini-series.
I was so bored out of my mind watching this i actually looked up the plot on my smartphone half way through . . . . i’ll never forget having to explain what i read to the people i went to go see the movie with . . . it was like translating a lecture we were all listening to in a foreign language.
That’s the exact same reaction I had. It was so smart I stopped giving a shit at about minute 10.
Ya you guys are right, doesn’t hold a candle to easy-to-understand thrillers like Abduction starring Taylor Lautner. Why do they have to add plot and acting to movies these days? Makes no sense, even on dedicated movie sites like this we can all agree that Transformers is the heart and soul of modern film making. No explosions = time to pull out my smartphone in a movie theater. And don’t say I’m “That Guy” cus we are all so that guy. I mean how much dialogue can we be honestly expected to pay attention to, I went to go see a movie, not a ted talk.
Brett Ratner 4 EVAR!!!1!
I hated this movie. It was extremely slow and boring. It was confusing at times to figure out who was who, not because the movie was smart, but because it was just a bunch of scenes with men sitting in rooms talking and smoking. It was an extremely bad movie. I don’t get the good reviews.
Christ are people on this site such fickle minded. They trash on every new trailer and clip for being pretentious etc etc. Cometh a movie that is well made in terms of acting,plot,story and the first thing I hear is complaining. Its as if you dont deserve any good films, if you are passionate about films, do yourself a favor and be a bit gratful.
Amen to that – its a notoriously difficult to follow book as well, but the sheer class of Oldman, Hurt, Firth & Co and the intricacy of the sets, costume & cinematography make it worth that struggle to piece it all together. A nice break from the CIA/drug cartel/terrorism action-thrillers of late.
Half of these people probably downloaded it for free anyway!
Bring the all-star cast back!!! Except, you know…
You know, no matter what, anyone can make a sequel to anything. I think this sequel would be pretty fascinating, because Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was in itself pretty fascinating too.
People who say it was boring and confusing are simpleminded. If you actually took the time to listen (and trust me, every idiot calling it boring didn’t) you’d understand what was going on instead of acting like a jackass expecting a James Bond film.
Smiley’s People is a great book, and would make a great follow-up. Love the quiet, intelligent spy thriller, becuase that’s true to life, not Bond.
Le Carre is an outstanding writer and I love his Smiley trilogy (although the Honourable Schoolboy barely featured George at all).
I would love if The Honourable Schoolboy were made into a film. It would probably be hard to sell since Smiley is more-or-less a minor character, but perhaps with rewrites and more of Oldman it might be bankable. Eh, either way, won’t happen apparently.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was a movie that I meant to watch in theaters, but I never got around to it. I kept hearing what an incredible job Gary Oldman did, and some of my coworkers at DISH told me that even Tom Hardy did a good job (this was before his performance as Bane). I added it to my Blockbuster @Home queue I have set up through DISH, and I was confused. I held onto the DVD for another week since there aren’t due dates or late fees to worry about, so I was able to watch it again. I’m so glad that I did because the movie made a lot more sense the second time through. If they do actually make a sequel, I’d watch it.