(Left) Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Paradox in 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios’ ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios / © and ™ 2024 Marvel. (Right) Gary Oldman as George Smiley in ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’. Photo: StudioCanal.
Preview:
- Matthew Macfadyen may be our next screen George Smiley.
- A new TV series will adapt several John le Carré spy novels.
- Le Carré’s sons are behind the latest effort.
Spies, it would seem, never quite leave our screens. And would we even know if they’d snuck away anyway?
But between the ongoing wrangling over the future of the James Bond franchise, similar seismic shifts in the Bourne empire, Apple TV+’s ‘Slow Horses’ continuing to impress on small screens and Steven Soderbergh bringing icily cool espionage to movie theaters with the recent ‘Black Bag,’ they are still at the forefront of pop culture.
And that’s without mentioning the raft of straight-to-home entertainment titles that sneak on to streaming and elsewhere apparently every other month.
Yet the name John le Carré, much like Bond creator Ian Fleming, carries more weight and –– usually at least –– a more recognizable stamp of potential quality.
Which goes some way to explain why his work keeps being adapted. Now, if a new project comes together as its backers hope, we could see the latest incarnation of le Carré’s most famous creation, George Smiley, show up.
Matthew Macfadyen as Tom Wambsgans on HBO’s ‘Succession.’ Photograph by Macall B. Polay/HBO.
As, according to Variety, ‘Succession’ actor Matthew Macfadyen is attached to play Smiley in a potential new series called ‘Legacy of Spies.’
It’s the latest development for The Ink Factory, the company founded by le Carré’s sons Stephen and Simon Cornwell, which has previously produced multiple adaptations of the author’s work.
That includes the series adaptation of ‘The Night Manager’ starring Tom Hiddleston. That show won two Emmys and three Golden Globes, including best actor for Hiddleston, upon its debut.
‘Legacy of Spies,’ however promises to be a little different…
What’s the story of ‘Legacy of Spies’?
(Right) Gary Oldman as George Smiley in ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’. Photo: StudioCanal.
The pitch comes with multiple scripts written by Ink Factory co-founder Stephen Cornwell and Clarissa Ingram.
‘Silo’ creator Graham Yost (who also helped launch ‘Slow Horses’) is executive producing the potential series, based on le Carré’s series of novels featuring the character Smiley, ‘The Spy Who Came in From the Cold,’ ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,’ ‘The Honorable Schoolboy’ and several others, as well as some unpublished materials.
Le Carré’s bestselling novels were inspired by the author’s own experience of working for British intelligence in the 1950s and 60s. Some other work by le Carré –– the pen name of David Cornwell, who died aged 89 in 2020 –– will also be used in the show.
We’ll have to see if it gets picked up, but Variety’s story mentions that it has already been pitched and has multiple offers on the table, so we’re thinking it’s more a case of when this one gets made.
Legendary spymaster Smiley, a sometimes bureaucratic and calculating character, has previously been brought to screens by a long line of actors, including Rupert Davies in 1965’s ‘The Spy Who Came in From the Cold,’ Denholm Elliott in 1991 TV movie ‘A Murder of Quality’ and Alec Guinness in the 1979 ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ TV miniseries.
“How do you find an enemy who is hidden right before your eyes?”
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Perhaps the most famous version was Gary Oldman’s in Tomas Alfredson’s 2011 movie adaptation of ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ which was nominated for three Oscars, including Oldman for Best Actor, its score, composed by Alberto Iglesias, and its adapted screenplay from Peter Straughan and Bridget O’Connor.
In the novels, le Carré describes the character as, “Short, fat, and of a quiet disposition, he appeared to spend a lot of money on really bad clothes, which hung about his squat frame like skin on a shrunken toad,” which means the lanky Macfadyen will be playing a slightly shifted version.
Smiley is also far from the author’s only creation. The Ink Factory’s series and film adaptations of le Carré novels besides ‘The Night Manager’ include U.K. television series ‘The Little Drummer Girl,’ directed by Park Chan-wook and the Anton Corbijn-directed ‘A Most Wanted Man’ starring Philip Seymour Hoffmann, in partnership with Amusement Park.
The company is also developing a new TV series based on le Carré’s ‘The Spy Who Came in From the Cold,’ and contemporary series adaptations of ‘The Constant Gardener’ (in English) and ‘A Most Wanted Man’ (in German).
Where else have we seen Matthew Macfadyen?
Matthew Macfadyen Talks ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’.
Macfadyen is probably best known at the moment for the aforementioned role on HBO hit ‘Succession’ as Tom Wambsgans, the ambitious, blustering husband to Sarah Snook’s Shiv Roy, who has his eye on more power in her father’s legacy media company.
He won two Emmys and two BAFTA awards for his scene-stealing performance on Jesse Armstrong’s show, which was on screens between 2018 and 2023.
The British actor is also known for his roles in films such as 2005’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Death at a Funeral,’ and was most recently seen in as Mr. Paradox in ‘Deadpool & Wolverine.’
Next up is Prime Video thriller ‘Holland,’ opposite Nicole Kidman, which premiered this month at the SXSW festival.
And let’s not forget that the actor has fictional intelligence agency bona fides already: he played MI-5 agent Tom Quinn across several episodes of UK spy series ‘Spooks’ (retitled in the States as ‘MI-5’), so he knows his way around a dead drop.
Related Article: Matthew Macfadyen Talks ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ and Playing Mr. Paradox
When will the new George Smiley series be on our screens?
That’s the big question –– right now, without a confirmed buyer for the project, there are zero details on a release.
But with multiple offers coming in, we can expect to hear news before too long; perhaps we could see another collaboration between AMC and a UK channel, as with ‘The Night Manager’ series? Or even Prime Video, which has nabbed the rights to two further seasons of the Hiddleston-fronted show.
Gary Oldman as George Smiley in ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’. Photo: StudioCanal.
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