Despite the fact that much of the attention given to the 2011 "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" adaption was devoted to its stylish '70s look, the Le Carre books chosen for adaptation since have offered no such opportunity. In the upcoming "Our Kind of Traitor," due out this spring, tweed-suited Soviet spies have been traded for contemporary vacationers on a cheap package holiday.

That's not to say that there's no action, or that the Russians are totally absent. In this case, the vacationers are embroiled in a fight between a Russian mobster and the British secret service. They're sent "on a tortuous journey through Paris to a safe house in the Swiss Alps, to the murkiest cloisters of the city of London," according to a synopsis of the novel on Le Carre's official site.

The film will star Ewan McGregor (of the three "Star Wars" prequels, among many other things) and Naomie Harris (who has some spy-film bona fides thanks to her role as Moneypenny in the recent James Bond films).

"Our Kind of Traitor" comes a year after another less celebrated Le Carre adaptation: "A Most Wanted Man." That film was also a hit, though on a smaller scale than "Tinker." It, too, was contemporary, dealing with Islamic radicalism in modern Germany.

Again, though, Russia figured in to the plot: the "wanted man" of the title is a Chechen immigrant whose father was in the Soviet military.

Le Carre, of course, made his name writing about the heyday of the Cold War. However, he's continued writing steadily since, updating his subject matter to suit the issues of the day.

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