Tom Hardy Boards Yakuza Drama THE OUTSIDER

Along with a possible the Elton John-centric biopic Rocketman, Tom Hardy has come on board Yakuza drama The Outsider with Takashi Miike in negotiations to direct what would be his English-language debut.

Silver Pictures has acquired the Andrew Baldwin script The Outsider back in November of last year, which is set in post-WWII Japan in the Yakuza underworld and Hardy was rumored for the lead role.

Well, Bane himself, The Dark Knight Rises’ Tom Hardy will indeed star in the independently-financed film, previously set up at Warner Bros.

Based on an original idea by John Linson, an epic story that ‘chronicles the life of a former American G.I. who becomes a Yakuza enforcer and falls in love with a young woman within the crime family, which is seen as a betrayal’ will be shoot in Japan early next year.

Hardy next stars in the franchise reboot Mad Max: Fury Road, along with the Dennis Lehane-scripted and Michael R. Roskam-directed crime drama Animal Rescue opposite Noomi Rapace who will reunite with Hardy on upcoming Daniel Espinosa-directed Stalin-era thriller Child 44.

Prolific Japanese film director Miike has helmed more than 60 Japanese-language films including absurdly violent films such as Ichi The Killer and Dead Or Alive, or most recently, the samurai epic, 13 Assassins and Audition.

Stay tuned, and thanks for your interest.