Dark Horizons points the way to Turkish website HT Galeri for our first glimpses (fifteen of them, in fact!) of Tom Hardy and Svetlana Khodchenkova as British agent Ricki Tarr and Russian spy Irina (repectively) in Tomas Alfredson's new film version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. The pictures also confirm the film's 1970s period setting, as appropriate cars line the streets. The fact that they were snapped in Istanbul may sound some alarm bells among fans of John Le Carré's seminal novel, as it signals that the location of Tarr's encounter with Irina has once again been moved from Hong Kong to Europe, just as it was in the 1979 Alec Guinness miniseries. (Lisbon in that version.) This doesn't really alter the story in any significant way, but I always liked how the Far East location 1) showed how the Cold War was played out all over the globe, and not just in Europe, and 2) nicely dovetailed into the second novel in the Karla trilogy, The Honourable Schoolboy (which didn't get filmed by the BBC, but which I really, really hope makes it to the screen this time around!) with mention of station chief Tufty Thessinger. Oh well. Istanbul is still a great spy location in its own right (lots of precedent for that!) and Thessinger, at least, seems to remain intact, as these pictures also appear to show Christian McKay (in suitable 70s garb) playing the role. Hardy sports a 70s wig to rival Hywell Bennett's actual hair in the miniseries, and also a number of odd tattoos. (Most of the photos depict him in a shirtless state.) For a previous look at star Gary Oldman as spymaster George Smiley, go here.
