Tradecraft: Philip Seymour Hoffman Tackles le Carré

Deadline reports that Mission: Impossible III villain Philip Seymour Hoffman is close to signing on to star in Anton Corbijn's previously announced John le Carré adaptation A Most Wanted Man. I haven't read the 2008 novel, but Hoffman and le Carré seem like a good match no matter what. (The author's high-brow spy fare is probably especially appealing to top caliber actors right now following Gary Oldman's well-deserved Oscar nomination for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.) According to the trade blog, Hoffman will play a rogue German spy chief who tries to piece together the complicated mystery surrounding a Chechen Muslim who illegally immigrates to Hamburg and may be at the center of an elaborate terror plot. I'm very excited to see how Corbijn, who directed the visually striking George Clooney assassin thriller The American, handles le Carré material. I guess I need to move that book to the top of my reading list. In the meantime, though, I need to post something really silly to get away from this non-stop stream of le Carré of late! Stay tuned for the silliness tonight or tomorrow.