Corona | Coming Attractions

This project has been slow in its development. Casting announcements first began to appear over a year ago: Gary Oldman as the lead, MI6 intelligence officer George Smiley; Colin Firth (who just came off of his Best Actor win for The King's Speech); John Hurt; rising stars Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch; and Mark Strong, who seems to be in just about everything these days from Sherlock Holmes to Kick-Ass to Green Lantern. With such an assembled cast of established and new English actors, this is one reason why the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy movie was worth noticing.

The other reason is that it marks the English language debut of director Tomas Alfredson who, four years ago, directed the Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In. That's a very good reason to watch and see what Alfredson makes of le Carré's novel.

So, without further adieu, here's the new trailer for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy:

It looks like Alfredson has kept the early 1970s backdrop for the film's action. If you couldn't suss it out from the trailer, Le Carré's thriller is about George Smiley leading the investigation into identifying a Russian mole embedded at the top of MI6. British operatives from around the world begin dropping dead when the Russian double-agent reveals their identities, throwing MI6 into a full-scale panic. Men who worked alongside each other for years suddenly cannot know for certain if the person that they rely upon to keep them safe is really who they think they are.

Focus Features is targeting a November 16, 2011 release for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which seems like they're confident that their picture might have some chances for an Oscar nomination or three.