From The Guardian comes an exclusive look at the first teaser for Tomas Alfredson’s cerebral, old school, spy thriller, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

We get our first look at quite a few of the major characters. We’ve seen stills of Gary Oldman as George Smiley, as well as of Colin Firth and Tom Hardy, but in the trailer we also see Benedict Cumberbatch as Peter Guillam, John Hurt and very briefly, a glimpse of Mark Strong as betrayed spook Jim Prideaux  (skweeeell!).

Oldman plays British Intelligence operative George Smiley, whose task is to uncover a Soviet agent (a mole) who has infiltrated MI-6, the highest echelon in the British Intelligence Services.

The clip starts with a voice over by veteran British thesp Simon McBurney. We then hear Oldman’s Smiley. And is it me or does Gary Oldman seem to want to sound like Alec Guiness who played the same role in a tv mini-series of the same name in 1979, and again in another one in 1982, “Smiley’s People”? It’s a bold choice to suggest to people that they remember Guiness instead of trying to make people forget the earlier portrayal. Only an actor as self-possessed as Oldman would even attempt it.

Also appearing in the film, though not necessarily in the trailer (it moves pretty fast) are Ciaran Hinds, Svetlana Khodchenko, Toby Jones, Stephen Graham and Kathy Burke.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is slated to open the Venice Film Festival in early September and is set for a UK release on 16 September, in the US we have to wait until 18 November.