The Road To Wigan Pie

idlesuperstar:

Happy Birthday David Niven [1st March 1910 - 29th July 1983]

elenatria:

cinemaocd:

idlesuperstar:

change.org petition to the BBC for their next John le Carré adaptation to be The Looking Glass War (1965).

Reasons why this would be FUCKING AMAZING

a) it’s a great, very overlooked book, it’s probably my second favourite JLC book, and as well as being about hubris and failure and spies, it’s also a love story change my mind

b) it is super gay, it’s the gayest of JLC’s books (and he has canon queer characters in pretty much every book, looking at you, canon disaster bisexual Bill Haydon). Not only does it have fairly obviously canon queer characters in it, the Avery/Leiser relationship made me write fic, it’s that slashy. 

c) there is a terrible TERRIBLE film of it from 1970 that even though it has Tony Hopkins as John Avery and Ralph Richardson as LeClerc is just The Worst Thing Ever and that needs to be corrected/obliterated from memory

 d) although Smiley is only in it a bit, he is super important and YET AGAIN he is the voice of reason that nobody listens to which is 2000% the reason I need Jared Harris to be him - also Jared wiping his glasses on his tie is a canon Smiley move which I got very overexcited about when it happened (in fact, it’s something Alec Guinness did in Tinker and JLC incorporated it into Smiley’s character thereafter). 

e) even though Leiser is Polish and I’m being a dick for casting an english actor I gotta tell you as soon as I saw Inception I flailed massively about how very Leiser Tom Hardy is, especially in Eames’ clothes and so you will pry Tom Hardy!Leiser from my cold, dead hands

f) ngl I love all these actors but I also did do proper thinking about who would be best for the characters (also shoutout to @cinemaocd for the Nick Frost idea which is PERF) 

@elenatria: Wiping his glasses on his tie, is George Smiley (from John Le Carre) reference . Le Carre describes smiley as doing after Alec Guinness used this little tic in his portrayal.

Smiley, like Legasov, is an unassuming, mid-level expert, a smart guy, a “boffin” who gets brought in to clean up other people’s messes.

Amazing. And it took me six years to notice. 😂😂 Also amazing that JLC was inspired by Guinness and not the other way round.

ALSO also back in 2019-2020 Jared was considered for Smiley’s part in a TTSS revival by JLC himself. No idea what happened to that project but I’ll die on a hill waiting for it.

idlesuperstar:

Climbing High [d: Carol Reed, 1938] is finally out on dvd - this is the best picture quality you’re gonna get of this flippin’ idiot.

idlesuperstar:

Anton Walbrook as Jean Boucheron in The Rat [1937]