John le Carré Series ‘Legacy Of Spies’ Adds Charlie Hunnam, Daniel Brühl & Devrim Lingnau Islamoğlu To Cast Led By Matthew Macfadyen

Today, The Ink Factory announced some big casting additions to the upcoming John le Carré series “Legacy of Spies” with Charlie Hunnam as British intelligence officer Alec Leamas, Daniel Brühl as East German spy Jens Fielder, and Devrim Lingnau Islamoğlu as Doris Quinz (aka, Agent Tulip) in the gestating project coming from MGM+ and the BBC.

The show already has “Succession” actor and Emmy-winner Matthew Macfadyen (“Deadpool & Wolverine”) playing the iconic literary British spy George Smiley in the new spy series, who has been previously portrayed by Alec Guinness in the series “Smiley’s People” and Gary Oldman in Tomas Alfredson‘s 2011 drama “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.”

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Stephen Cornwell (“The Night Manager,” “The Little Drummer Girl”), the late novelist’s son, is set to showrun and write with Clarissa Ingram, Graham Yost (“Justified,” “Silo,” “Slow Horses”), and Malte Grunert (“All Quiet on the Western Front”) to be attached as executive producers.

David John Moore Cornwell, who used the pen name of le Carré, ended up writing some of the greatest spy novels and is credited with turning the Cold War thriller into one of the more popular genres. The series will be adapting both “The Spy Who Came In From The Cold” and “A Legacy of Spies,” the latter of which was published in 2017, as the beloved author passed in 2020.

An official logline of the acclaimed 1963 spy novel via Amazon:

In the shadow of the newly erected Berlin Wall, Alec Leamas watches as his last agent is shot dead by East German sentries. For Leamas, the head of Berlin Station, the Cold War is over. As he faces the prospect of retirement or worse—a desk job—Control offers him a unique opportunity for revenge. Assuming the guise of an embittered and dissolute ex-agent, Leamas is set up to trap Mundt, the deputy director of the East German Intelligence Service—with himself as the bait. In the background is George Smiley, ready to make the game play out just as Control wants.

Simon Cornwell and Stephen, Founders and co-CEOs at The Ink Factory, said in an official statement, “This project is in many ways the most ambitious and all-encompassing adaptation of le Carré’s work to date, taking our father’s best-known and most-loved most character – the complex and brilliant spymaster George Smiley – and using this medium as a canvas to chart his story as he moves through a world which culturally and politically shapes the one we live in today. To have Matthew embody this operational mastermind, a man both vulnerable and dangerous, alongside the brilliant talent of Charlie, Daniel, and Devrim, is a great coup. We are thrilled the series has found its home with the BBC and MGM+ and to be collaborating alongside Malte and the Amusement Park team, while having Graham’s wisdom, vision, and deft touch helping us guide this project – bringing his own mastery of the genre alongside that of le Carré’s.”

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Back in 1965, “The Spy Who Came In From The Cold” was adapted into a feature film with Hunnam’s character Leamas being played by Richard Burton, and Rupert Davies was in the Smiley role.