Comments | 13_pines: Put on a 'Smiley' face.

13_pines

Put on a 'Smiley' face.

Jun 03, 2010 20:06

Okay, so I was going to add this post to the "I'm the only one who cares about this" pile, but I think it also applies to those of you who are fans of 1) spy movies/novels, or 2) the works of British author John le Carre.

According to The Daily Mail, Gary Oldman is in negotiations to play George Smiley, the anti-James Bond, in a big screen version ( Read more... )

colin firth, books, gary oldman, movies

Comments 4

amycurl June 4 2010, 12:19:54 UTC

Hmmm...interesting! I'm a huge Le Carre fan; I think I've read all of his work. For me, Smiley will always be Alec Guinness--I've had the DVD set for awhile now--but this could be interesting.

What I would really like to see is a big screen version of The Honourable Schoolboy...I think they may have made one in the 70s, but I've never seen it.

13_pines June 4 2010, 22:59:07 UTC

Oh great, someone who's a fan! I didn't realize Le Carre wrote both The Constant Gardener and The Tailor of Panama until last night. I'm kind of interested in reading some of his work now. I enjoy mystery-ish novels and I've been looking for summer reading, so I might swing by the bookstore tomorrow and see if it has any of Le Carre's novels. Is there any particular one that you suggest I start out with?

Alec Guinness was always amazing in everything he did. Truly one of the greats. I haven't watched one of his movies in a long time, though. Maybe I'll see if I can get my hands on a copy of the BBC version.

amycurl June 5 2010, 00:16:42 UTC

Both of those are good, and are "stand alone" stories. The best of his spy novels are called The Karla Triology...you can find the three novels bound together under that name, or you can get them separately:
Tinker, Tailor..., The Honourable Schoolboy, and Smiley's People.

The Little Drummer Girl is also pretty good, as is The Russia House.

His best novel, declared one of the best mystery/spy novels of all time, and one of the 100 best novels period is The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Chillng, but brilliant.

I think Mr. Curl found the BBC DVDs on Amazon, but it might have come from a specialty catalog, I'm not sure (they were a gift sometime ago.) In any case, let me know what you think!

13_pines June 5 2010, 02:40:37 UTC

Excellent! Thanks for all the suggestions...I can't wait to go book shopping now!