Tom Hardy confirms he will next play notorious gangster Al Capone in the movie Fonzo. The man who inspired the original Scarface, Prohibition-era bootlegger Capone rose to become the most powerful gangster in Chicago. Capone legendarily went down not for murder or racketeering, but tax evasion. After a stint in Alcatraz, Capone lived out his final days in waning mental health due to dementia.
Hardy's interest in playing the notorious Al "Scarface" Capone first came to light in 2012 when he became attached to Cicero, with director David Yates. Hardy was still up for playing Capone in 2016 when the project titled Fonzo was first revealed, with Chronicle director Josh Trank attached. Recent reports indicated the movie about Capone's later years is not only still alive, but set to go before cameras in New Orleans in early April.
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Tom Hardy himself now confirms that he will next tackle the role of Al Capone. See Hardy's Instagram announcement post below:
A synopsis describes the film as focusing on an aging Capone, racked by syphilis, looking back on his past:
"Once a ruthless businessman and bootlegger who ruled Chicago with an iron fist, Alfonse Capone was the most infamous and feared gangster of American lore. At the age of 47, following nearly a decade of imprisonment, dementia rots Alfonse's mind and his past becomes present as harrowing memories of his violent and brutal origins melt into his waking life."
The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported back in February that Trank remains set as Fonzo director. Trank's ongoing involvement in the project would seem to indicate his apparent several-year professional exile has indeed ended. Trank scored an early success with the superhero movie Chronicle, penned by Max Landis. But later suffered a major career blow with the failure of his big-budget Fantastic Four reboot. Trank then exacerbated things by publicly attacking 20th Century Fox for making changes to the film. The director was in fact at one time set to direct a Star Wars anthology film before leaving the project. Though Trank claimed he exited to pursue other opportunities, reports claimed Lucasfilm in fact fired him due to accounts of his poor relationship with Fox executives on Fantastic Four. Since then, Trank has been invisible on the movie scene.
The fact that Fonzo remains on speaks volumes about the clout of Hardy. Hardy clearly has his heart set on playing Al Capone and now it appears he will get his wish. Of course, Hardy won't be the first actor to take on the iconic gangland figure. Actors who previously played Capone include Rod Steiger, Jason Robards and Ben Gazzara. But of course the most famous on-screen Capone portrayal remains Robert De Niro's brutal turn in Brian De Palma's The Untouchables. With his intense screen presence, Hardy should make a more-than-worthy addition to that roster of Capones. The actor has played many real-life criminals in the past, including the notorious Kray Brothers (Legend), Depression-era whiskey runner Forrest Bondurant (Lawless) and violent prisoner Michael Peterson/Bronson (Bronson). He of course also played entirely fictional super-criminal Bane in The Dark Knight Rises.
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Source: Tom Hardy