TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 2011 Anglo-French espionage film directed by Tomas Alfredson, from a screenplay written by Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan based on the 1974 novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré. The film stars Gary Oldman as George Smiley, and co-stars Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ciarán Hinds. It 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.
Prior to the film's release, a number of teaser character posters were released that featured stars including Gary Oldman, Benedict Cumberbatch and Colin Firth. It is clear that the main actor being promoted to an audience because even on the character posters his name is featured in a larger type above the title of the film. 
I particularly like these posters because the design of the numbers and character faces is very effective and conveys that the film will involve spies/espionage and of a detailed nature. 

The official film poster features stills from the film of the key characters and also anecdotes from the likes of 'EMPIRE'. I personally don't think that this poster is as effective as the character posters because it reveals a great deal and I believe that with the genre 'spy fiction', not many details should be revealed aside from actors, title and date because it detracts from the professionalism of the poster. The key actors within the film are also very well known within the industry and to the public and so it is not quite necessary to promote the film with such high budgeting and anecdotes.

When looking at the 1979 TV mini-series of 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy', it is very easy, putting technological advances aside, to define the differences and similarities between the two. The 1979 version adopts a cartoonistic approach which depicts the character of George Smiley and a number of metaphorical symbols such as the broken statues and running figure. Also, a tagline is used to sum up the film/tv series; I don't think this is particularly effective however, it may be a fairly traditional convention of the time when introducing new plot lines. A strong similarity between the two versions is the strong use of the male protagonist within the poster.