Mighty Movie Podcast: Tomas Alfredson on <em>Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy</em>

Long for the heady, Cold War days of espionage, when spies were spies, ideologies were economics-based, and there wasn't all this religious brouhaha muddying up the motivations? (Enhanced interrogation, though, was still pretty much the same thing.) Well, director Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In) takes us back to that furtive, paranoia-laced era in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the big-screen adaptation of John le Carré's celebrated novel.

Set in the early 70′s and centered on the search for a mole in Britain's MI6, otherwise known as the Circus, Alfredson rallies a stellar cast -- including Gary Oldman as le Carré's canny spy George Smiley, John Hurt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, and Tom Hardy -- to tell a tale deception and conspiracy, where friends may not be what they seem and secret masterminds may not be as secret as you might expect. It's dark, it's tense, it makes James Bond look like Maxwell Smart's less-incisive brother.

Click on the player to hear my interview with Alfredson.

See the trailer for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy at Mighty Movie Podcast