Tom Hardy will be The Outsider for Takashi Miike
Brad Sturdivant
June 7th, 2013
It must be a good week for Black Listed scripts to finally get picked up. Jennifer Lawrence just signed on for THE RULES OF INHERITANCE and now another major young Hollywood star is snatching up a Black List script. Tom Hardy is set to star in THE OUTSIDER by Andrew Baldwin. The story is a fascinating one and follows a former American prisoner of war that rises through the ranks of the Yakuza in a post World War II Japan. If Tom Hardy’s involvement and a fascinating, albeit brief, synopsis wasn’t enough for you, then it looks like Japanese director Takashi Miike is set to make his English language debut with the film. Miike has made many, many movies, but I best associate him with the great 13 ASSASSINS from 2010 or ICHI THE KILLER from 2001. Needless to say, Miike has a very strong fanbase, especially for those that keep up with Japanese cinema.
This is not the first time THE OUTSIDER has come close to going into production. There was an iteration with Michael Fassbender starring and Daniel Espinosa directing that recently fell through. It’s clear this is a hot priority for producer Joel Silver as production is set to start in early 2014. Tom Hardy currently has a ton of projects on his plate, including the currently filming ANIMAL RESCUE with Noomi Rapace, LOCKE for Stephen Knight, the adaptation of SPLINTER CELL, EVEREST for Doug Liman, CHILD 44 for Daniel Espinosa and the PTSD drama SAMARKAND for director Greg Williams. That’s on top of the numerous projects Tom Hardy has been loosely associated with. You might think that THE OUTSIDER would have to get in line with the rest of them, but it seems the idea of Tom Hardy fighting his way up the Yakuza is just too exciting to put on hold. With any luck, we may see this in time for awards season in 2014. (Deadline)
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