Chad Taylor

Matryoshki

International trailer for the new version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is here. I don't know if anyone can top Bernard Hepton as Toby Esterhase but Gary Oldman looks (and sounds) good enough to become a new generation's George Smiley.

What is the formula for determining when a character has become an archetype? How many iterations does it take, and over what period of time? So many writers hit it straight out of the box: Rebecca de Winter, Walter Mitty, Marlowe, Lolita, Lisbeth Salander (nee Longstocking), Hannibal Lecter, Tom Ripley. But a certain type survives to accrue layers of interpretation: Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, 007. Batman's archetypal; Superman isn't. Emma Peel ought to be, although she lives on in other characters. Likewise Number 6.

Actually maybe not Bond. I think we broke that. (He hasn't transmuted into Bourne, either. The Bourne movie trilogy is the Frankenstein myth – the post-modern Prometheus.)

Disclaimer: this is not a Joseph Campbell reference (sic). Time to close that book.