It seems like just about everywhere you turn, Tom Hardy's to be found - and, mind you, that's not a bad thing. Since his well-liked supporting turn in Inception, Hardy has appeared onscreen in critically-acclaimed fare like Warrior and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, is playing Bane in this summer's extremely highly-anticipated The Dark Knight Rises, will appear in two additional noteworthy 2012 titles (This Means War and Wettest Country) and the handsome English actor still hopes to headline Mad Max 4 in the future.

Add one more to the upcoming Hardy-centric film list: Cicero, a genuinely old-fashioned, true-story mobster drama.

Cicero is slated to be directed by David Yates (the last four Harry Potter movies) who is currently said to be re-working the film's screenplay, as was originally penned by Oscar-winner Walon Green (The Wild Bunch, RoboCop 2, Law & Order). There are tentative plans to make Cicero the first in a trilogy, but those are far from concrete right now.

Hardy informed the Daily Mail that he's up to play iconic Depression-era crook Al Capone in Cicero and has been looking for inspiration from classic 1930s gangster titles such as The Petrified Forest, The Public Enemy, and Little Caesar, among others. Similarly, the indication is that both Green and Yates' shared artistic vision for Cicero is being heavily influenced by the style of classic Hollywood crime flicks.

Here is what Hardy had to tell the publication about his prep work for Cicero (and the movie in general):

"I’ve been working with Warner Bros, watching their gangster films — the ones with James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson. It’s interesting to get them, and a bit of Capone, into the bloodstream. You look at pugnacious James Cagney in The Public Enemy and see how this guy rises up to become a kingpin in Chicago.

"The idea [with 'Cicero'] isn’t to remake those films but to get a flavour of them as we explore Capone’s career as a racketeer."

For those not up to scratch on their Capone history: Cicero, Illinois was where the criminal set up headquarters, so he could operate outside the city limits of Chicago during the 1920s.

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Capone has been portrayed onscreen (in either film or TV form) more than fifty times, going all the way back to the 1940s; most recently, the character has been brought to life on the small screen by Stephen Graham on Boardwalk Empire. Hence, the idea of crafting a Capone-centered movie that feels fresh and innovative is intimidating enough; that's to say nothing of the actual task of playing the mobster.

That said: if anyone can offer a creative new take on the colorful, larger-than-life criminal personality of Capone, it's someone like Hardy (see: his role as the titular madman in Bronson, for proof of that). Likewise, Yates handled the challenge of translating the Harry Potter series into film form quite well; so, all things considered, he should at least be well-positioned to deliver an old-fashioned, yet enjoyable crime flick with Cicero.

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Cicero isn't slated to begin production until well into 2013; similarly, both Yates and Hardy have several other projects on their plate to handle, in the meantime. All the same, we will be sure and keep you up-to-date on the film's status.

Source: Daily Mail (via Movies.com)