Tom Hardy to Play an Antarctic Explorer in Untitled Epic

Tom Hardy is gearing up to star in his new FX series Taboo, but that doesn't mean he's taking a break from the movies. Deadline reports that that Mad Max: Fury Road star has signed on to play explorer Ernest Shackleton in a new epic film for Studiocanal, with Peter Straughton (The Debt, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) writing the screenplay. I'll let Deadline handle the quick description:

Who’s Shackleton? He led three British expeditions to the Antarctic, but the polar explorer is best remembered in how he handled adversity. His ship Endurance was crushed by ice floes and he managed to keep everyone alive in a harrowing journey to safety in sub zero temperatures.

Sounds like a great project for Hardy, who always seems to thrive when he plays a man dealing with extremes. It's been a little while since we've seen a full scale disaster movie like this that's based on a true story with an A-list star (come on, Nic Cage's U.S.S. Indianapolis movie doesn't count), so this could be a cool opportunity for something with gorgeous visuals and built-in stakes.