The Wall Department

[uncle_al]

They're just two who worked in the shadows.

Of course, there are also people like E. Howard Hunt, of Watergate infamy, who worked for CIA...

And I forget perhaps too conveniently if G. Gordon Liddy was with the Agency.

Cheers!

Al B.

[ScriptNurse]

It's worth noting that John LeCarré was a spy for the British MI-6 and Ian Fleming worked for British Intelligence during World War II (see a biography at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Fleming).

[Shindig]

John le Carre's left the door open for about 20 years.  (well, 7)

I better get in there before he starts writing about spies again...

Film and television

In 1965, Martin Ritt directed the first film adaptation of a le Carré novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Richard Burton played the novel's protagonist, Alec Leamas. The following year, Sidney Lumet directed The Deadly Affair, a film adaptation of le Carré's novel Call for the Dead. In 1969, Frank Pierson directed a film adaptation of The Looking Glass War.

In 1979, the BBC adapted the first novel in the Quest for Karla trilogy, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, into a television miniseries in which Alec Guinness starred as George Smiley. On the DVD release, le Carré says this was his favourite filmed adaptation of his work. Three years later, Alec Guinness reprised his role in a BBC adaptation of the final book in the trilogy, Smiley's People.

The middle novel, The Honourable Schoolboy, a story that focuses on Jerry Westerby (played by Joss Ackland in "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"), was never adapted for television as the BBC considered the costs of mounting a production in South East Asia to be prohibitive.

In 1984, Diane Keaton appeared in an adaptation of The Little Drummer Girl. Three years later, A Perfect Spy was adapted into a television miniseries. In 1990, Sean Connery played the protagonist in Fred Schepisi's film adaptation of The Russia House. The following year, A Murder of Quality was adapted by Gavin Millar for television. In 2001, Pierce Brosnan, a former Bond, played the lead spy in The Tailor of Panama.

In 2005, the film The Constant Gardener was released, based on his novel. The story is set in slums in Kibera and Loiyangalani, Kenya. The situation affected the crew to the extent that they set up the Constant Gardener Trust in order to provide basic education around these villages. Le Carré is a patron of the charity.

[ScriptNurse]

Now's your chance to offer an alternative.

[Shindig]

I can't stand 007.  He's a showboat.  He knows nothing of discretion.

[ScriptNurse]

Sounds like the makings of a franchise not unlike Ian Fleming's 007.

[Shindig]

Cheers a lot.  I'm quite chuffed the criticisms weren't too disconcerting.  As I said, this was mostly going to be scrapped and basically restarted.  I'll give this some serious thought and devote some genuine time and consideration to the concept stage.

I was a bloody idiot to abandon it half-way through, frankly.  I just wrote most of it on a whim.  Some of which can be nicely slotted in elsewhere.  Working the whole conflicts in should be doable, now I'm giving it some serious thought.

[Shindig]

I started a proper outline and then kind of scrapped it.  Bury's probably the closest thing to a protagonist.  I can't exactly call Sinton one (yet) as he hardly features.  I could always play-up Bury's role a bit more.

[ScriptNurse]

Is it me ... or did I miss the protagonist and antagonist in your story?

Did you write an outline of the story before scripting it?

[Shindig]

So I currently have a spy thriller on the go.  However, I've ditched a lot of ideas for it and suddenly now wish to resurrect them.

As a result, my current script is something of a condensed mush.  If anything, what I originally thought could manage a nice one-off 90-100 minutes is becoming more of a serial.

So, The Wall Department seems to now be more of a cornerstone, rather than the finished article.  To sort the structure out, I'll need to ditch, re-write and ammend some sections.

Synopsis
With the Soviet Union falling, the major powers decide to restore some parity by conducting a mass exchange of agents.  In this process, they uncover a slight discrepency with one of the missing persons.  The Brits decide to uncover the trail of a missing defector who vanished in the early 80s.

Now, I've got a couple of issues with the current script.  As I said before, it does play out like some sort of 'greatest hits'.  Everything's condensed, they get from A to B and find a suitable conclusion.  However, I've got a lot of back story for the missing agent and frankly, I want to expand on it.

The Wall Department only glances at it as plot milestones, rather than proper events.  On top of that, there's no obstruction from the higher-ups, like there really should be.

The current script rounds out at 103 pages but the formatting's nothing like industry standard (it'd be massive, otherwise) so I very much see The Wall Department as a part in a much bigger saga.  So it has to be a good starting block for things.

Anybody who fancies chipping in opinions on the script is welcome.  Just drop me an email.  michael.kitchin@yahoo.com