'The Little Drummer Girl' Trailer: Park Chan-Wook's TV Spy Thriller Looks Great
Park Chan-wook assembles a splendid cast to tackle the work of John le Carré in The Little Drummer Girl. This marks Park's first foray into television, and based on the footage below, the results won't disappoint. Florence Pugh, Alexander Skarsgård and Michael Shannon star in the 1970s-set spy thriller. Watch The Little Drummer Girl trailer blow.
The Little Drummer Girl Trailer
Seduction. Manipulation. Betrayal.
Featuring Michael Shannon, Alexander Skarsgård, and @Florence_Pugh, #TheLittleDrummerGirl's three-night event starts on AMC on 11/19. pic.twitter.com/2wPEuNe1aa— AMC TV (@AMC_TV) October 8, 2018
Well, this looks great. Park Chan-wook! Colorful costumes! Michael Shannon doing a weird voice! What's not to love? The Little Drummer Girl is the latest John le Carré adaptation to head to AMC, following in the footsteps of The Night Manager. But based on the footage here, Drummer Girl is bound to be much more stylized than that previous show, primarily due to director Park Chan-wook. The filmmaker is responsible for the Vengeance trilogy, Stoker, The Handmaiden, and more. The prospect of him working with this material is exciting as hell.
"When you actually look at Director Park's work," said co-showunner Stephen Cornwell, "there's a lot in it that speaks to the same themes as Little Drummer Girl in terms of conflicted loyalty, conflicted love, the kind of fusion of a love story in a thriller context and sort of divided identity and divided loyalty all seem to run deep through. And also female empowerment... He's really built fascinating female characters in his narratives."
In The Little Drummer Girl, Florence Pugh plays Charlie, "a fiery actress and idealist whose resolve is tested after she meets the mysterious Becker (Alexander Skarsgård) while on holiday in Greece. It quickly becomes apparent that his intentions are not what they seem, and her encounter with him entangles her in a complex plot devised by the spy mastermind Kurtz (Michael Shannon). Charlie takes on the role of a lifetime as a double agent while remaining uncertain of her own loyalties."
This isn't the first adaptation of Little Drummer Girl. The le Carré novel was previously turned into a 1984 film starring Diane Keaton as Charlie. "I don't think anyone was trying to recreate that again," Pugh said in regards to the '84 film. "I think, when I spoke to director Park. He's got such a fresh mind. He's completely original and I didn't really want to do any copying. I don't think it's any actor's dream to copy anyone's performance. You can take it in and grow from it, but I didn't want to copy."
AMC is taking a novel approach in how they debut the miniseries event. Little Drummer Girl runs six parts total, and the network will air all episodes in two-hour blocks over the course of three nights, starting on November 19, 2018. It's not quite the same as binge-watching a streaming series, but it's certainly better than having to wait entire weeks for the next thrilling installment.