Entertainment For Lively Minds
Remake of Tinker Tailor
Posted by Con Coleman on 9 July 2010 - 11:16am.
I genuinely don't know what to make of this: they're going to make a film of le Carre's Tinker, Tailor....
http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=28317
No doubt it's a good cast but should it be filed under pointlessness of the highest order? Or perhaps slotted into the cabinet marked 'Wait and See, It Could Be Brilliant.'
I suppose if Ewan MacGregor can reinvent a classic Alec Guiness performance for the new millenium, then there's no reason Oldman can't. Ahem.
- More from Con Coleman.
- Login or register to post comments
-
Heresy
I watched the first episode and gave up. So painfully, crawlingly slow. You know, as much as the ADD MTV generation get mocked, perhaps sometimes they have a point? A near four hour series condensed into two hours? It can be done. And in this case all they have to do is pick up the pace and already they're at the right length.
Also an additional bit of heresy: is Alec Guinness overrated? I'm not saying he is, but the unthinking automatic praise of everything he does makes me wonder?
Thing is -
- the books are about a tiny accumulation of detail making the horror and enormity of the betrayals that much worse. There isn't much action and on the face of it not that much plot - it's about the characters and the grubby underside of a country that has lost its belief in itself. I thought the TV series conveyed that perfectly - and scarily.
Mind you I got fed up with Le Carre because re-reading some Smiley books recently they seem to be all about a bunch of drink sodden class obsessed cynics - the amount of whisky consumed is extraordinary and anyone non-Oxbridge always gets a kicking. Then I read the official M15 history and realised its bang on assuming SIS and the Security Service have the same culture.
Oldman as Smiley?
As I read through the cast list I thought Colin Firth must be Smiley and was taken aback at the thought of it being Gary Oldman. Oldman surely must be Bill Haydon.
look on the bright side
...at least it hasn't got Mel Gibson, Kevin Costner, George Clooney (insert name of any number of Hollywood "stars") making a complete arse of a re-make of a British classic
Simon Russell Beale
...is Smiley on the radio, and he would the one for me for any remake.
Smiley is a don not a hood, and much as I like Gary Oldman, even when he is being benign on screen he still looks lean and edgy and someone who can handle himself in a brawl. Not Smiley at all. However SRB is mainly stage not screen, and presumably unattractive to the money men.
Colin Firth as Bill Haydon would be class casting though.
SRB
Agreed. One of the finest actors around.
He's done a bit of TV, but not seen as a movie actor. He would, however, be brilliant.
I was lucky enough to see him perform in Stratford a number of times, and I still haven't quite recovered.
LEAVE WELL ALONE
is my advice. You can't improve on perfection and TTSS was, indeed, just that.
Sorry LOUDspeaker, it couldn't be condensed into two hours and still retain the claustrophobic and intricate nature of the story.
Alec Guinness is wonderful as Smiley but it's not just his performance.
Bernard Hepton as Toby Esterhase and Hywel Bennet as Ricky Tarr are at the top of their game and Ian Bannen's Jim Prideux must be the scariest school teacher ever.
Must watch it again soon.
stinglikeabee
Agreed. Classic UK television. That bit where Smiley (Sir Alec) takes off his specs and waits for Ricky Tarr (Bennet) to give his account of his shenanigans with the wifie is absolute magic. Having read the book previous to the TV show, I wondered if the 4 (was it not 6?) episodes could do justice to the book. It did. With big boots. Sir Ian Richardson, Sian Phillips, him from Zcars and Get Carter,... could not be bettered.
By the by, has ANY remake ever surpassed the original? I can only think of one....Body Heat.... William Hurt And Kathleen Turner remaking Double Indemnity ( Fred McMurray and Barbara Stanwyk)... but that one is pretty close!
exactly
The interrogation of Hywel Bennett sticks in my mind as one of the greatest bits of TV acting I've ever seen. It's not in anything Guinness says; it's in the sudden transformation from twinkly old gent, to Man Who Can Have You Killed, effected in the simple act of taking his glasses off and wiping them on his tie.
If I were to guess at the casting here, I think Oldman would make a pretty good stab at Prideaux, Fiennes would be Haydon and Fassbender is too young to play anyone other than Ricky Tarr. There's still a pretty big Smiley-shaped hole there - I think Toby Jones would do a good job, but I don't think he's ever had star billing before.
the sequel Smiley's People
(the middle book of the trilogy The Honourable Schoolboy having been seen as too difficult / expensive to adapt for TV) was also fantastic, even surviving a completely different but equally good Peter Guillam (I can imagine Colin Firth as Guillam quite easily but I agree that if it turns out he is Haydon that would be quite special).
As for Oldman as Smiley - I'm surprisingly open minded about the prospect. I see it as a positive that he's not remotely comparable to Alec Guinness in acting style.
My open mindedness might be a result of having unexpectedly enjoyed Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes - a brilliantly fresh take on a seemingly untouchable characterisation I thought. Holmes as a bare knuckle fighter? Well yes, if you slow down the action and we hear his incomparable intellect working out his next moves in forensic detail...
Oldman as Smiley
My reservations are based upon my reading of the novels and how I see Smiley and whatI've seen of Oldman. There is a definite incongruity between the two.
At face value
I totally agree. It's a bit like the TV adaptations of Ian Rankin's Rebus books - Ken Stott was born to play the role while John Hannah was, er, not.
I suppose we will have to wait to find out if the TTSS remake turns out to be a fresh take on a seemingly untouchable original or if it is just wrong like Hannah's Rebus.
Out of interest, who would you have play Smiley? A cursory glance at a list of British actors doesn't throw up anyone remotely obvious. A left field choice might be Timothy Spall, but not sure if he could play an Oxbridge type convincingly. In physique he would certainly be a closer match than Oldman. He would probably be a shoo-in for Roy Bland though...
Someone like Philip Seymour Hoffman has the requisite anonymity, but to my knowledge he's never played a non-American.
the Rebus of the mind
When I first read the Rebus novels, it was Ken Stott I saw in my minds eye. Then Hannah did the TV series, nope still couldn't get him into my heid as John Rebus. Eventually Ken took the role but by gawd, the Hannah ones were far better made and a load more interesting. After the first series with KS, the Rebus in my mind became JH. Now I'm not saying that to throw a cat amongst the pigeons, it is what actually happened to me. I'm not happy about it either, Stott is Rebus but the Hannah ones were so much better. When I read a Rebus, it's JH these days and that's jist meringue.
Interesting point Mr. Blast
I'd never thought of it that way before. I must admit that the central problem of John Hannah being just too young and handsome to play the Rebus of my imagining made me blind to any nuances of production values. But I suppose your point does raise some hopes for the upcoming TTSS remake. I still remain open-minded (must be the happy pills - the old me would have condemned it sight unseen as a shallow facsimile...)
thanks Dougie
I ken it's meringue but that's the way my daft mind works, back to TTSS, Ian Bannen was my star in that series, who the hell can play someone as chewed up and spat out as he was?
Absolutely.
Although Bannen, like Connery as Bond among countless others, was perhaps too indelibly Scottish to play a character who was English public school and Oxbridge to his core. Then again, perhaps, like Connery again, such figures are better at portraying quintessential Englishness than born Englishmen. Discuss...
But..
Might not Hannah have been perfect for Rebus in the St Leonard's years (which are 20 years ago now) and Stott for the more modern books?
Could Rebus not have transformed from Hannah to Stott in the time it took to scoop hundreds of pints and 'haufs' in the Oxford between 1990ish and last year?
That's a lot of prog rock and murders under the bridge for one man to remain beautiful throughout.
Two possibilities
not on that list would be Alan Howard, who is probably the right age, or Michael Kitchen, who may be slightly younger than necessary (but he is older than Oldman).
Another on the list is Anthony Hopkins, who I think could be superb.
This will not end well
I just cannot see this surpassing the original. Alec Guiness is truly wonderful, his best performance. The scene where he puts his glasses on to interrogate a suspect, the strong light reflecting off them, giving him a sinister air. Magic. It is slow moving by modern standards but much the better for it, every nuance is there for all to see.
I totally agree.
It's not about 'surpassing the original'. Guinness's performance is one of the greatest characterisations of all time as far as I'm concerned. But over 30 years have passed since this landmark TV series was released.
Just as it was difficult to imagine a bare knuckle fighting Sherlock Holmes from the books or previous characterisations, perhaps a slightly more physical Smiley could work. After all, a spy, however cerebral, would have had to be comfortable in all kinds of environments, not just St. James's clubs...
if it is anything like
the remake of Edge of Darkness which I have just watched, it will be dreadful
Agreed.
See also:
State Of Play
Brideshead Revisited
The Singing Detective, with the aforementioned Mr Downey Jr and Katie Holmes in the Joanne Whalley role. You've not seen it? Lucky you.
Your post
has made me heartily glad that I have lost touch with new movies and never have time to see them anyway.
:-)
Actor who could do Smiley
Suddenly I am thinking of Brian Cox. Hugh Bonneville?
But I agree with everyone up there. Simon Russell Beale on the radio was exceptional.
Michael Caine
He can do posh as he demonstrated in Zulu. He can do academic as he demonstrated in Educating Rita. He's got the specs. He's putting on weight. He'd be perfect.
Interesting idea.
The reason I think Guinness was so perfect was that he had played such a variety of roles in the past. While Caine would no doubt do a great portrayal of Smiley there would be that nagging thing in the background saying 'but it's Michael Caine!'. That was why I thought someone like Philip Seymour Hoffmann would be ideal.
Kenneth Branagh anyone?
Definitely
Branagh seems to attract a lot of opprobrium just for being Kenneth Branagh. I think he's been terrific in just about everything I've seen him in and don't understand why so many people dislike him.
I became a fan having seen him on stage in Another Country in the early 80's. His performance stole the show from Rupert Everett. I forgot the name soon after, then some years ago sorting through papers I found the programme. My immediate thought was to wonder if the guy who had played Tommy had gone onto fame and fortune. It was of course Ken.
It goes without saying that I think he'd do a great job as Smiley.
I like Branagh.
I think the fact that he rose rapidly in theatre, and then film, made people suspicious - he was regarded as a bit of a upstart. Also the utter ubiquitousness of Ken'n'Em in the 90s didn't help. Didn't mean either of them lacked talent, but celebrity clouded the whole thing, I think.
Why not get Ems
who says Smiley has to be a bloke - Carla, Rimmington...