VARIOUS: The Oscar buzz is already well underway at the UK film premiere of 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'

Record ID: 219796

  • Title: VARIOUS: The Oscar buzz is already well underway at the UK film premiere of 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'
  • Date: 14th September 2011
  • Summary: FIRTH BEING INTERVIEWED BY MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (English) COLIN FIRTH, ACTOR, SAYING: "I think it has the pace that belongs to it. And I think it's a very very personal, very human story as well as a thrilling puzzle. And I haven't spoken to anybody that found the complexity frustrating. I think it's enticing and I think it's music and -- the pacing is -- nothing but a pleasure. Certainly I find I've seen it twice now and the second time that grew one me." JOHN HURT SPEAKING TO MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (English) JOHN HURT, ACTOR, SAYING: "Oh I think there are different -- areas of the media there. What I think Tomas Alfredson has done brilliantly and it's quite difficult to do with a really good book -- it's easier with a bad book cause you can rip it in bits and start all over again but a good book is very difficult to move from literature to pure cinema. And he has managed to do it and I think that's a massive achievement." DIRECTOR TOMAS ALFREDSON WITH PARTNER POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) TOMAS ALFREDSON, DIRECTOR, SAYING: "It's quite challenging to see and a lot of things are happening but in a still way. And it's -- I used to say it's intellectual 3D." ACTOR BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS (SOUNDBITE) (English) BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH, ACTOR, SAYING: "It's a great thing for an actor to do because it's all about subtle shifts, it's all about levels of truth and miles work where you have to earn people's trust, you have to be convincing. Those are all well daily work for an actor to be trustworthy and convincing in whatever you're doing as an actor. So, and the subtlety to the story and this era and this script was yeah very -- much something I wanted to do." LE CARRE POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) JOHN LE CARRE, AUTHOR, SAYING: "It's always dangerous to start thinking of Tinker Tailor 2 as it were. There are other books we could do but I would love them to be done separately and with the same originality. I don't want any kind of recycling and I know Gary would love to do another, I'd love to do another but we have to come to it with a proper nervousness without confidence." VARIOUS OF HARDY, FIRTH, OLDMAN, CUMBERBATCH AND HURT POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS ON RED CARPET
  • Embargoed: 29th September 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVA359ETYWO7NEXCUII0XAINFGZQ
  • Story Text: After receiving much praise for his role in espionage thriller "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month the Oscar buzz around Gary Oldman is well underway.
    The actor has taken on the role of retired Cold War agent George Smiley, made famous by the John Le Carre novels, who is asked by his boss to help uncover a Soviet mole which he suspects in the British intelligence service.
    Oldman, who joined other cast members on the red carpet in London (September 13) for the film's UK premiere, told Reuters Television that he tries not to pay too much attention to the Oscar talks.
    "I don't follow it but -- it's nice if people are saying it. I mean it's -- better than them not saying it. Lets put it that way, but -- lets see we got a long -- way to go -- Colin Firth can tell you that. It's a big -- it's a campaign, isn't it," the actor said.
    Fellow co-star and Oscar winning actor for "The King's Speech" Colin Firth was more outspoken.
    "Quite rightly -- I don't want to feed it cause I know what it's like but -- I think it's been a long time coming. You know -- he is among the very best that there's ever been I think."
    Taking on the part of George Smiley comes with extra baggage for any British actor, given the status of Alec Guinness's portrayal of the same character in an acclaimed 1970s television series.
    "I mean the book has such a huge following and is enjoyed you know sort of -- it's been a best-seller you know all these years -- and then of course Alec Guinness made the character very famous -- in the seventies", Oldman explained, adding: "You feel the ghost of all that -- the ghost of Alec on your shoulders a bit going in -- but I approached it rather like an actor with a classical role. You know there've been -- other Hamlets but you can't let that, you can't let that really get in the way. So that's -- how I, you know, he made it great -- this is a much beloved character for all of these people but what the hell, go for it, you know."
    The cast also includes John Hurt as Smiley's his boss Control, Ciaran Hinds, Toby Jones and David Dencik as the four key spies who could be behind the treachery. Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Smiley's right-hand man Peter Guillam says he enjoyed playing a spy.
    "It's a great thing for an actor to do because it's all about subtle shifts, it's all about levels of truth and miles work where you have to earn people's trust, you have to be convincing. Those are all well daily work for an actor to be trustworthy and convincing in whatever you're doing as an actor. So, and the subtlety to the story and this era and this script was yeah very -- much something I wanted to do," Cumberbatch said.
    John Le Carre, author of the George Smiley novels explained why it had taken more than three decades for the story to receive the big screen treatment.
    "It is a complex story with a lot of back story and the novel uses George Smiley's memory and you can't do a lot of memory on screen. Flashback becomes a bore. So actually to bring the whole thing into primary sequence -- was a real work of art," Le Carre adding that "I credit absolutely the two writers: Bridget O'Connor who is alas last dead -- and her husband Peter Straughan and once I saw their script I realized that we really got something going. And so any misgivings I had disappeared then."
    Le Carre, who appears briefly on screen, advised the movie's producers to choose Swedish director Tomas Alfredson to adapt the notoriously complicated story of betrayal for cinema after seeing his vampire film "Let the Right One In".
    While the film might allow topical comparison to other films set in the same era, such as the popular "James Bond" movies, "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" director Tomas Alfredson opted for a slower, less action packed approach to his film.
    "It's quite challenging to see and a lot of things are happening but in a still way. And it's -- I used to say it's intellectual 3D, " the director explained.
    Despite the film's complexity Colin Firth thinks it works.
    "I think it has the pace that belongs to it. And I think it's a very very personal, very human story as well as a thrilling puzzle. And I haven't spoken to anybody that found the complexity frustrating. I think it's enticing and I think it's music and -- the pacing is -- nothing but a pleasure. Certainly I find I've seen it twice now and the second time that grew one me," Firth said.
    Fellow actor and co-star John Hurt agrees, crediting the director. He told Reuters Television:
    "What I think Tomas Alfredson has done brilliantly and it's quite difficult to do with a really good book -- it's easier with a bad book cause you can rip it in bits and start all over again but a good book is very difficult to move from literature to pure cinema. And he has managed to do it and I think that's a massive achievement."
    So could there be a chance for a sequel? Le Carre says he is uncertain:
    "It's always dangerous to start thinking of Tinker Tailor 2 as it were. There are other books we could do but I would love them to be done separately and with the same originality. I don't want any kind of recycling and I know Gary would love to do another, I'd love to do another but we have to come to it with a proper nervousness without confidence."
    "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" hits British theatres September 16.
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