It feels like it's been quite a long time since we saw Tom Hardy on screen. But in fact, he's been working consistently, with five films in the last eighteen months, and the actor's such a chameleon that it's hard to draw a line between Ricky Tarr in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" and Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises," especially as Hardy spent most of 2012 in Africa shooting the Mad Max movie "Fury Road."
But now that the ever-rising star is done with that, he's lining up all kinds of projects, co-starring with Noomi Rapace in both Michael Roskam's "Animal Rescue" and Daniel Espinosa's "Child 44," working with Doug Liman to climb "Everest" and leading video game adaptation "Splinter Cell." But before any of that, Hardy's going to knock out a quick thriller with an intriguing twist, with Screen Daily announcing that Hardy will top-line "Locke," which will shoot later this month in London.
Directed by Steven Knight, who penned "Eastern Promises" and "Dirty Pretty Things," and whose Jason Statham-starring directorial debut "Hummingbird" will be released later in the year, the film sees Hardy play a man who receives a mysterious phone call that causes his life to unravel. The twist? The film will be shot in real time over 90 minutes. Does this mean a single take? Some kind of found-footage conceit? It's a fascinating idea, and we look forward to hearing more.
Knight and Hardy aren't the only big names involved, as "Anna Karenina" and "Hanna" director Joe Wright is producing the film, along with his "Atonement" producer Paul Webster and Shoebox Films. And with shooting set to get underway at the end of the month (and presumably being fairly quick), we could well see this on the festival circuit (at least) and possibly in theaters before the end of 2013.
Tom Hardy truly needs to choose his projects wisely, and not just do anything that is thrown at him.
It sounds interesting but I wish he'd do "Cicero" already