Tom Hardy is set to have a huge 2012. He’s about to introduce himself to the world as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. After that his career can only go up and he’s beginning to step into producing. Not only that, but studios are starting to trust him to lead movies.

He’s got a new Mad Max trilogy lined up and just signed a first-look deal with Warner Bros, which includes this new movie about an outlaw biker. The idea comes from Sons of Anarchy creator John Linson and is about a wounded Vietnam War vet who returns home to San Francisco in 1969. There are clashing cultures in the Haight-Ashbury district and Hardy eventually becomes the leader of California’s most violent outlaw biker club.

Sounds pretty awesome, huh? And we all know Hardy can do violent. The one worry is that it’s scripted by Vacancy writer Mark L. Smith, which was largely OK. Hardy will need to find himself a good director for this one to succeed. Who knows, he may even get himself an Oscar nomination. [Variety via Vulture]

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