A ‘Tailor’ made International Career for Let the Right One In’s Tomas Alfredson

You can bet that Swedish helmer Tomas Alfredson had to field tons of requests for his next directing gig since the international success of Let the Right One In – the pic that was so popular that an American remake was commissioned quickly during the craze (Let Me In is going to be released in January of next year). Today, the director follows in the footsteps of Fernando Meirelles, who after giving us breakout City of God also took on a John Le Carré novel (The Constant Gardener). Alfredson has been paired with the very busy Peter Morgan on the adaptation of Le Carré’s Cold War spy novel, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Here is Wiki’s entry description for the novel and reasoning for the title: First published in 1974. It is the first volume of a three-book series informally known as The Karla Trilogy, followed by The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People. All three novels were published as a single-volume omnibus, The Quest for Karla. In the novel, George Smiley, the old, estranged, overweight, taciturn and sharp-minded protagonist, is recalled from his uneasy retirement when there are signs that one of the top-ranking officers of the British Secret Intelligence Service (referred to throughout as “The Circus”) is a Soviet mole. The novel’s title is from the children’s rhyme “Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief.” The rhyme is used to provide code names for the five men the Circus chief suspects of being the mole.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy begins shooting next year for Working Title Films. Working Title’s co-chairman Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, with Le Carré, Debra Hayward and Liza Chasin are also executive producing. Peter Morgan is an executive producer.