British pedigree of A-listers line up for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

In a Summer rammed with superheroes, pirates, robots, aliens and a few pissheads with the mother of all hangovers, attention will soon turn to the films that will likely feature in the next awards season. It only feels like yesterday when Colin Firth and Co were triumphantly waving the British flag sky high and overpowering the yanks at the Oscars. Not attempting to be too clichéd but I will anyway, it seems that history may very well repeat itself and alarm bells could very well be ring-a-ding-dinging upon the Hollywood hills when September 16^th knocks on the door with the release of the John le Carré espionage adaptation, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

To be totally honest, I am actually struggling on where to begin on this one as it has the potential to be one of the big winners of 2011 with critics and fans alike. The cast is simply overwhelming, brimming with talent, versatility and experience. Leading the all-star British cast is Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Colin Firth, John Hurt, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Stephen Graham, Ciarán Hinds and Toby Jones.  Try listing off all that talent in one breath.  Could this be the greatest cast ever assembled? Only time will tell. But I am certainly putting this at the forefront as a genuine contender for big awards next year. Set during the Cold War, retired MI6 agent George Smiley (Oldman) is pulled out of retirement to investigate a Russian mole that has infiltrated the M16 hierarchy and positioned himself at the “Top of the Circus.” His mission is to discover which of his former colleagues has chosen to betray him and more so his beloved country.

The first trailer was released at the end of June and a brand new, longer trailer hit the web this week stoking me up ten-fold. Let The Right One In director Tomas Alfredson is taking charge of this spy espionage and from the looks of the footage, he has certainly gone down the cloak and dagger route and not giving anything away with a solid sense of tension brewing amongst the ranks of the highly trained MI6. The trailer does give off a menacing yet poetic tone that makes it undeniably one of the hottest tickets for the Autumn months ahead.

The cast is just overpowering to glance at with some of my all-time favourite actors including of course Gary Oldman (which by the looks of his role as the centrepiece, is poised to be a big contender at next year’s Academy Awards. Let’s face it, it’s about time his title gets an upgrade from Bafta Award Winner to Academy Award Winner Gary Oldman). It seems Tom Hardy is a popular chap at the minute and so he bloody should be with some outstanding performances in his breakthrough film, Bronson which then led on to Chris Nolan’s, Inception and of course the small, insignificant matter of the lead villain role as pumped up brute Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. The other big names that deserve mentioning are of course King Colin Firth and my mate John Hurt. The other cast members are in their own right class acts and key ingredients to what could potentially be one of the biggies.

Get your flag waving hand at the ready with your side of tea and scones set for 16th September when Tinker Tailor Solider Spy releases on UK cinemas.

Written by Michael Cunneen