Quote of the Day (John le Carre, on Film Adaptations)

"Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bullion cubes."—Attributed to novelist John le Carre

Given that the theme week at the Chautauqua Institution, where I’m vacationing right now, is the American intelligence system, the temptation was irresistible to use this quote by one of the premiere—perhaps the premiere—practitioner of the espionage novel.

(Incidentally, at a class I took this morning, two retired CIA case officers said that two novelists generally favored by those in the bureau were le Carre and Graham Greene, both of whom worked in the British intelligence service before they wrote their spy thrillers. (Tom Clancy, on the other hand, got a thumbs’ down from the couple.)

I came across this delicious quote in, of all things, a Roman Catholic weekly church bulletin. Perhaps it’s not so bizarre a find, on second glance. After all, it requires a real act of faith for an author to trust that his material will be treated sensitively in a different medium often more guided by the dollar than by aesthetics.

The closest source I could find for this quote traces it to the author’s feelings after watching how his The Tailor of Panama was translated to the big screen. I’m not sure if le Carre’s feelings about that adaptation were as ambivalent as this quote suggests (the film wasn’t that bad, after all). Actually, the novelist has been far better served than most writers by the entertainment industry. (See especially The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.)

When I went to le Carre’s official Web site, I discovered news that sure seems to validate his faith. It seems that a new film adaptation is going to be made of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. For the life of me, I can’t imagine how Hollywood could improve on the 1970s version of the first third of his Quest for Karla trilogy. For one thing, the first pass at his book was turned into a mini-series, allowing for greater opportunity to dwell on character and plot points. Additionally—perhaps even more crucially—it had Sir Alec Guinness in a tremendous career-capping role, as quietly dogged (yet troubled) spycatcher George Smiley.

But le Carre appears very, very high on this remake, this time produced for the big screen. That’s what having Gary Oldman (taking over the Smiley role) can do in boosting an author’s faith in the men who make the movies.