Tom Hardy is reuniting with LOCKE director Steven Knight for a fantastic new television project, with Ridley Scott executive producing. Deadline has learned Hardy will star in an eight-part period drama for BBC called Taboo. The series is based on an original idea from Tom Hardy and his father Chip Hardy, and created by Steven Knight. Production on Taboo will begin in the UK in January 2015.
Set in 1813, Taboo follows Hardy’s James Keziah Delaney who returns from Africa with 14 ill-gotten diamonds and seeking to avenge his father’s death. Refusing to sell the family business to the East India Company, he sets out to build his own trade and shipping empire and finds himself playing a dangerous game with two warring nations, Britain and America.
Tom Hardy says Taboo will be a “flagship British drama for this generation,” and says it's a “hybrid of orthodox and unconventional storytelling, packed with darkness and spirited characters.”
Steven Knight describes Tom Hardy's character in Taboo as "a deeply flawed and deeply troubled human being," and says "His greatest struggle will be against the East India Company which, throughout the nineteenth century, was the equivalent of the CIA, the NSA and the biggest, baddest multi-national corporation on Earth, all rolled into one self-righteous, religiously motivated monolith.”
Tom Hardy and Steven Knight also previously worked together on another BBC drama, last year's Peaky Blinders. Hardy and Knight seem to work very well together, which is a good sign for Taboo. But to be honest, I was sold on Taboo as soon as I saw Hardy's name attached to the series. The dude is just a phenomenal actor who usually picks interesting projects to work on, and with Steven Knight and Ridley Scott onboard as well, I have very high expectations for Taboo.
You'll be able to check out Tom Hardy in Steven Knight's LOCKE on April 25th, 2014, and you can read our review from Sundance here.