Claim: Tom Hardy has acted in an adaptation of a novel.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 2011 Cold War espionage film directed by Tomas Alfredson . The screenplay was written by Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan , based on John le Carré 's 1974 novel of the same name . The film , starring Gary Oldman as George Smiley , along with Colin Firth , Tom Hardy , John Hurt , Toby Jones , Mark Strong , Benedict Cumberbatch , and Ciarán Hinds , is set in London in the early 1970s and follows the hunt for a Soviet double agent at the top of the British secret service .   The film was produced through the British company Working Title Films and financed by France 's StudioCanal . It premiered in competition at the 68th Venice International Film Festival . It was a critical and commercial success , and was the highest-grossing film at the British box office for three consecutive weeks . It won the BAFTA Award for Best British Film . The film also received three Academy Awards nominations : Best Adapted Screenplay , Best Original Score , and for Oldman , Best Actor .   The novel had previously been adapted into the award-winning BBC TV miniseries Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy -LRB- 1979 -RRB- .