It seems I’ve written a lot lately about Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and it seems today it found it’s way into the news cycle once again as Universal has shifted distribution duties to its specialty wing Focus Features, which will release the film on November 18. My hope is that release date also means a September screening at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The move would appear to be a strategic one based on the success Focus found releasing one of the best movies of 2011, Hanna, earlier this year. And for those of you worried this will be some sort of platform release, don’t, Focus released Hanna in 2,535 theaters on opening weekend and is expected to follow suit with a nationwide release in November for Tinker, Tailor. I guess Universal just felt the independent distributor would have better luck with a cast that includes Gary Oldman (Leon), Tom Hardy (Inception), Mark Strong (Syriana) and Colin Firth (The King’s Speech) than they would be.
The film is based on the John le Carre’s Cold War spy novel, set in the 1970s as George Smiley (Oldman), a recently retired MI6 agent, is doing his best to adjust to a life outside the secret service. However, when a disgraced agent reappears with information concerning a mole at the heart of the Circus, Smiley is drawn back into the murky field of espionage.
For a look at a couple of images of Oldman, Hardy and Firth from the film click here.
