Tradecraft: Universal Picks Up Tinker, Tailor For U.S. Distribution

Deadline reports that Universal has acquired Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Let the Right One In director Tomas Alfredson's new adaptation of the John Le Carré spy classic, for distribution in the United States. The film was produced by SudioCanal and Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner's UK company Working Title, who have a long history with Universal, but the studio initially chose not to act on its first look deal.  Instead, when the movie got hot thanks to a cast including Gary Oldman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy and freshly-minted Best Actor Oscar winner Colin Firth, and The Weinstein Company and Summit got into a bidding war, Universal came back into the picture and snapped it up.  According to the trade blog, Universal is eyeing a November or December release, and "word is the film’s a tour de force for Oldman." That frame would position the actor perfectly for an Oscar campaign of his own next year. It will also put it in direct competition at the box office with the other 2011 spy movie I'm most looking forward to, Brad Bird's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol.  StudioCanal will release the Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in the UK and much of Europe, and is still shopping the rights for the rest of the world. I'm just happy to know that the film's American distribution is locked down now! I would have hated for it to be one of those iffy ones that doesn't get a proper release here.