Wow. Maybe it’s just the way our brains are wired, but we just saw more fireworks from 70-odd seconds of middle-aged British character actors than we got across two-and-a-half-hours of empty spectacle in “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.” The Guardian just debuted the first international teaser trailer for one of our most anticipated films of the rest of the year, Working Title‘s adaptation of John Le Carre‘s spy classic “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” the English-language debut of “Let The Right One In” director Tomas Alfredson, and it’s easily one of the best trailers we’ve seen in an age.
Set in the 1970s, at the height of the Cold War, and revolving around the search for a mole in the upper echelons of the British secret service, the film has a mind-blowing cast, led by Gary Oldman as George Smiley, the role inhabited by Alec Guinness in the original BBC TV version, with freshly-minted Oscar-winner Colin Firth, next big thing Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ciarán Hinds, Toby Jones, John Hurt, Simon McBurney, Stephen Graham, Kathy Burke, Christian McKay and David Dencik all along for the ride.
Most crop up in the clip, and all look to be in terrific form, with Oldman in particular confirming our suspicions that he’s set for a long-overdue Oscar nomination in the central role. Alfredson’s style is firmly in place, with a glorious, chilly retro vibe across the whole thing, and some killer framing spread across the trailer. The film can’t get here soon enough: it’s all but confirmed to bow at the Venice Film Festival in September, before opening in the UK on September 16th, with a U.S. release following on November 18th. There’s no embed yet, but for the moment you can watch it over at The Guardian. Update: Here’s an embed, watch below.