'All The Old Knives' script reminds Chris Pine of John le Carre's novels

American actor Chris Pine, best-known for playing Capt. James T. Kirk in 'Star Trek Beyond' and the action hero Jack Ryan, opines that the script of the thriller film 'All The Old Knives' reminded him of John le Carre's novels and classic spy films.

Chris, who plays a CIA agent in the film, said in a statement, "The script reminded me of John le Carre's novels and the classic spy films. 'All The Old Knives' has a cracking plot with great twists and turns and part of it took place in Europe in the winter, which always strikes me as desperately romantic and a little bit sad at the same time.

"It also touched on frightening situations like terrorist attacks that are happening in the world at the moment, and I felt it treated that material in a way that was very truthful."

In the film, Pine's character has been tasked to interrogate an eight-year-old hijacking case. Describing his character as a man highly adept at compartmentalising his feelings, he shared, "Like all great spies, he's emotionally closed off and very good at his job because of it."

Pine added: "Part of that is because of what happened to him early in his CIA career, so he's carrying a heavy burden of guilt and shame within him at all times.

"But then he meets Celia (Thandiwe Newtown), the love of his life. His heart starts to open up and he becomes a vulnerable human being, only to have it quickly shattered again."

The actor has also served as an executive producer on the film and was eager to collaborate with the director Janus Metz.

Speaking about the collaboration, he said, "I knew Janus was the right director for this after I saw his film 'Borg vs McEnroe', which paid such incredible attention to emotional detail.

"Also, it was visually stunning. The images had a granularity and a weight to them that you don't often find when shooting digitally so I appreciated Janus' emotional eloquence and his dynamic visual style."

'All the Old Knives' will be available to stream on Prime Video from April 8.