Text Original & Adaptation Success of the Adaptation Legal & Ethical Issues Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Working Title movie adaptation)

• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a spy novel from 1974. It was authored by British author John le Carré.

• The novel is about a intelligence officer forced into retirement. He is recalled to hunt down a Soviet “mole” (deep cover agent) in the “Circus”, the highest ranked of the British Secret Intelligence Service.

• The novel had been adapted to a TV show by the BBC in 1979, winning awards.

• In 2011, Working Title Films adapted the novel into a feature film, with the protagonist played by Gary Oldman.

• Other main cast members included Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch and Clarán Hinds.

• The film was premiered in competition at the 68th Venice International Film Festival.

• The 2011 adaptation of the novel by Working Title has known to be a success.

• When the movie was released, it became a critical and commercial success.

• It became the highest grossing film in the UK box office for three consecutive weeks.

• It had also been nominated for three Academy Awards: for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score and Best Actor (Gary Oldman)

• It had won Outsanding British Film, Best Adapted Screenplay and Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema at the BAFTA’s British Academy Film Awards.

• Rotten Tomatoes sampled 205 reviews and judged 83% of the reviews to be positive, giving the movie a “fresh” rating by the website.

• According to Box Office Mojo, the movie made $80,630,608 (£52,259,461.60)

• The legal issue for any adaptation is copyright. The film company (Working Title) would have had to have obtained a license or permission to use the copyrighted material from le Carré and/or the publisher of the original book. Had they not done this, they may have had to face lawsuits.