EXCLUSIVE: Danish director Kristoffer Nyholm, who helmed the acclaimed Scandinavian series The Killing, has boarded Tom Hardy event TV series Taboo. Nyholm, credited with a major role in the rise of “Nordic Noir,” will direct the first four episodes of the eight-part series. Hardy stars as James Keziah Delaney, who returns to London in 1813 after 10 years in Africa to discover that he has been left a mysterious legacy by his father. Driven to right the wrongs of the past, Delaney finds himself in a face-off against the East India Company, while playing a dangerous game between two warring nations — Britain and the newborn U.S. Steven Knight, whose collaborations with Hardy include Peaky Blinders and Locke, has created and written the series.
Ridley Scott’s Scott Free London is producing with Hardy’s Hardy Son & Baker for BBC One and FX, with Sonar Entertainment distributing internationally. Exec producers are Scott and Kate Crowe for Scott Free, Hardy and Dean Baker for Hardy Son & Baker, Gene Stein for Sonar Entertainment, and Knight, with Timothy Bricknell serving as producer. Taboo is based on an original story by Hardy and his father, Chips Hardy, who is also serving as consulting producer.
“This is a wonderful character-driven tale, and is very much the kind of dark, multifaceted world of drama and intrigue that I’m drawn to,” says Nyholm. “For me, it feels like a natural follow on from The Killing and The Enfield Haunting. We have a fantastic team on board to help bring it to life, and I look forward to that process.”
Nyholm’s credits also include Paris-set crime drama Jo; hit Danish TV series The Village and Sky Living’s well-received The Enfield Haunting.
Hardy has become ubiquitous onscreen, most recently playing the lead in Mad Max: Fury Road and next to be seen in Brian Helgeland’s Legend playing both Kray twins, as well as opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s highly-anticipated The Revenant.
Hardy is repped by Lindy King at United Agents and Jack Whigham and Mick Sullivan at CAA. Knight is repped by Natasha Galloway at United Agents and Brian Siberell at CAA. Nyholm is also repped by United Agents’ Galloway.
Taboo is set to begin shooting November in the UK.
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