Tom Hardy Is "The Outsider"

Tom Hardy will star in the independently financed English-language gritty action thriller "The Outsider" says Variety.

The script by Andrew Baldwin follows a POW in Osaka during World War II who stays on after the war. He works his way through the rituals and hardships to become the rare outsider who gains membership in the Yakuza crime unit.

Takashi Miike is in talks to direct the film that at one point last year had Safe House helmer Daniel Espinosa poised to call action.

John Linson, Art Linson, Joel Silver, Andrew Rona and Steve Richards will produce.

Production kicks off in Japan early next year.