Deadline is reporting that Tom Hardy has signed on to play the legendary explorer Ernest Shackleton in a big screen biopic from StudioCanal and writer Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy).
The Anglo-Irish explorer Shackleton is one of the key figures of the ‘Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration’, and led three expeditions to the Antarctic; on the third expedition, Shackleton’s ship the Endurance became trapped in an ice floe, forcing him and his crew to wait nine months before embarking on a hazardous journey to safety on board the Endurance’s lifeboats. Miraculously, the entire crew survived the ordeal and made it safely back to Britain.
Hardy will next be seen in Christopher Nolan’s World War II epic Dunkirk, and is also set to appear in the eight-episode miniseries Taboo, which reunites him with Locke director and Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight.
Originally published October 23, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
