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00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 - It's based on a late work by John Le Carre,

00:10 titled "The Pigeon Tunnel."

00:13 And it is maybe, I was going to say

00:17 one of my favorite Le Carre books,

00:20 but maybe it's my favorite Le Carre books.

00:24 I actually love it.

00:27 And it's pure delight to be able to turn it into a movie.

00:32 - Our dad was a huge fan of "Fog of War," yes.

00:35 And I mean, always, you know,

00:38 he was always giving us required watching

00:41 and required reading.

00:42 And I think this was something that he both,

00:47 you know, admired and to a certain extent,

00:50 hoped that one day he would be able to emulate

00:53 in terms of the sort of the intensity of it.

00:55 - Yeah, and I think he was conscious

00:58 of having a great conversation late in life.

01:03 He was conscious of time passing,

01:05 I don't think necessarily of his mortality,

01:07 but of his legacy.

01:09 And I think he both sort of consciously and unconsciously

01:13 really identified Errol as someone

01:16 that he could entrust that conversation

01:19 and that narrative and that life to.

01:21 - He was very, very selective, yes.

01:23 I mean, I think, you know, by and large,

01:28 when he wrote a book, he did an interview.

01:31 But he wrote 30 books,

01:33 so there are quite a few interviews out there.

01:35 - Yeah, I would say he was not reclusive with people, right?

01:41 That he was a very connected person,

01:44 not overly social, but very with people.

01:48 He really loved people and interacting with people.

01:50 - And he loved to entertain, too.

01:52 And I think you see some of that in the film.

01:55 I hope you see some of that in the film.

01:56 - But I think he was selective in his conversations

01:59 within a media sense.

02:01 He wanted to really connect through that process

02:06 with readership in the world in an interesting way.

02:10 - David Cornwell was a documentarian.

02:15 Every single book involved scrupulous research.

02:19 He would go to the places that he was writing about.

02:22 He would meet the people.

02:24 He would become involved in various shapes and forms

02:29 with the people he was writing about.

02:31 It wasn't a kind of hands-off writing exercise.

02:35 It was something very different.

02:41 And if he applied that technique to me, I'm quite flattered.

02:45 It's a lovely thing.

02:46 - I think this is a, it's, for both of them,

02:49 but also for Errol, a very personal, very beautiful journey.

02:54 And I think it's, you know, I'd say a conversation

02:58 about truth and history in really interesting ways.

03:03 And I think that resonates through the film.

03:07 - Part of what he talks about in the film

03:09 is this blurred line between himself and his father,

03:13 which is always there in one form or another.

03:17 And I think that's a very interesting thing

03:20 to see in the film.

03:21 I really like this one moment in the film

03:27 where he talks about George Smiley,

03:29 his principal character, as being the father he never had.

03:34 But Smiley was also an alter ego for Jean Le Carre himself.

03:39 And I think you run into difficulty

03:45 in the way that he's portrayed himself.

03:48 - Yeah, I think that's a very interesting point.

03:51 I think that's a very interesting point.

03:53 - Yeah, I think that's a very interesting point.

03:55 - I think that's a very interesting point.

03:56 - I think that's a very interesting point.

03:57 - I think that's a very interesting point.

03:59 - I think that's a very interesting point.

04:00 - I think that's a very interesting point.

04:01 - I think that's a very interesting point.

04:03 - I think that's a very interesting point.

04:04 - I think that's a very interesting point.

04:05 - I think that's a very interesting point.

04:07 - I think that's a very interesting point.

04:08 - I think that's a very interesting point.

04:10 - I think that's a very interesting point.

04:11 - I think that's a very interesting point.

04:13 - I think that's a very interesting point.

04:14 - I think about him often.

04:15 I like the guy.

04:17 I enjoy talking to him.

04:19 It's one of the great pleasures of my life.

04:22 I'm working on a drama,

04:26 a feature based on a character,

04:29 a mass murderer that I interviewed many, many years ago,

04:34 Ed Gein.

04:37 And I have another movie which we've shot

04:41 and we've been editing about the separations

04:45 on the border by the Trump administration.

04:48 And I think I have several other things too.

04:52 So you're right.

04:54 I'm not able to sort of contain myself.

04:59 (dramatic music)

05:02 [Music]

The Pigeon Tunnel | Deadline Studio at TIFF

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