With the success of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, everyone is looking to get a little Le Carre on to their slate. StudioCanal, which helped to bring Tinker to cinema screens, is at work on another of the author’s books, Our Kind Of Traitor, which is now looking to rope in Ralph Fiennes and Mads Mikkelsen.
Snowtown man Justin Kurzel is directing from a script by Hossein Amini, and the cast already boasts Ewan McGregor as part of a couple who get tangled up with a money laundering Russian oligarch.
Both Mikkelsen and Fiennes are in what’s called “advanced negotiations” but have yet to commit because they’re still juggling schedules to see if they can find the time to shoot. If they do jump aboard, Mikkelsen would be the Russian moneybags looking to defect, and Fiennes would be British government fixer Hector Meredith (hope he kept his Whitehall togs from Skyfall, then).
Packing $35 million to play with, Kurzel is scheduled to begin shooting this summer in London, Paris, Marrakech, Moscow and Switzerland.
Oh, and if you were wondering whether the company is still going ahead with an adaptation of** Smiley’s People**, AKA the third in John Le Carre’s Karla Trilogy, there is hopeful news. Talking to Screen Daily, StudioCanal’s Ron Halpern confirmed that progress continues. “We are working on Smiley’s People with Working Title. It’s still at the development stage – but, yes, the old team of Peter Straughan and Tomas Alfredson is back together. The same Tinker Tailor actors whose characters would reappear are well aware of what we’re doing. We’re hopeful for a 2014 shoot”.