Gary Oldman blocked from reprising Tinker Tailor role by John le Carré’s sons: ‘The damnedest thing’

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Kelly Rissman

US News Reporter

Gary Oldman has been barred from reprising his Tinker Tailor Solder Spy role, the actor’s manager and frequent producing partner has claimed.

The Harry Potter star, 66, led the 2011 film adaptation of John le Carré’s 1974 novel as veteran agent George Smiley. The story follows Smiley as he is forced out of retirement to assist the British secret service in uncovering a Soviet spy within their ranks.

Speaking to Radio Times about Oldman’s planned adaptation of Smiley’s People, the third and final book in the author’s spy trilogy, the actor’s manager Douglas Urbanski revealed that the movie has been brought to a grinding halt due to an “unexpected rights issue.”

“That’s an odd story. I’ll never know the mystery,” Urbanski said. “We loved Tinker and we started to do prep for Gary to do Smiley’s People, and suddenly there was an unexpected rights issue.

“We’ve reached out, including again recently, to le Carré’s sons and – the damnedest thing – they have no interest in Gary playing Smiley again. I don’t know why,” he added.

Directed by Tomas Alfredson, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy also featured Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, Stephen Graham and Tom Hardy.

The critically adored movie went on to land three Oscars for Best Actor, Best Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay. It also secured 12 Bafta nominations, of which it won three.

In a 2021 interview with Radio Times, Alfredson shared that he had heard the le Carré’s estate was planning a “big relaunch” of the character for the small screen; however, he doubted he or Oldman would have any involvement.

The Independent has contacted le Carré’s estate for comment.

British author le Carré died from pneumonia in 2020. He is survived by his two sons, novelist Nick Cornwell, 51, and movie producer Stephen Cornwell, 64.

His youngest son, better known by his pen name Nick Harkaway, has continued his father’s legacy and written a new novel based on Smiley called Karla’s Choice.

Set in the missing decades between le Carré’s 1963 novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and 1974’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Karla’s Choice follows Smiley in the years after he’s left the British Secret Service.

“Smiley is woven into my life; Tinker Tailor was written in the two years after I was born and I grew up with the evolution of the Circus, so this is a deeply personal journey for me, and of course, it’s a journey which has to feel right to the le Carré audience,” Harkaway told Penguin Books.

“It seems as if we need the Smiley stories back now because they ask us the questions of the moment: what compassion do we owe to one another as human beings, and at what point does that compassion become more important than nation, law or duty?”