With The Courier now playing in select theaters and available On Demand, I recently spoke to director Dominic Cooke about making the spy thriller. The film is based on the true story of British businessman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch), who helped the CIA penetrate the Soviet nuclear program during the Cold War. Wynne and his Russian source, Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze), formed an unlikely partnership that helped to diffuse the Cuban Missile Crisis in the early 1960s. The Courier also stars Rachel Brosnahan as a CIA agent and Jessie Buckley as Cumberbatch’s wife (Sheila Wynne).
During the interview, Cooke talked about why he was on board with the title change from Ironbark to The Courier, how he didn’t change anything after the Sundance Film Festival world premiere, how he’s working on an intelligent romantic comedy set in London, and more. In addition, he gives a great update on his movie adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies, including the people he wants to bring with him from his stage version of the show.
Check out what he had to say in the player above and below is exactly what we talked about followed by The Courier trailer.
Dominic Cooke:
- Did he make any changes since it played at Sundance?
- Why he loved premiering the film at the Sundance Film Festival.
- What were his thoughts when they changed the title from Ironbark to The Courier?
- When is he going to make another movie?
- What’s the status of his movie adaptation of Follies?
- How he’s also working on an intelligent romantic comedy set in London.
- Is he going to bring any of the people he worked with on the stage version of Follies to his movie?