It appears Tom Hardy and filmmaker Stephen Knight will be teaming up yet again. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the British duo has signed on for another project together: this time, bringing the stories of Charles Dickens to life on television. Hardy will serve as executive producer while Knight will write the episodes.
Hardy (known for his roles in The Dark Knight Rises, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Dunkirk) and Stephen Knight (Eastern Promises, Peaky Blinders) have collaborated several times before on series such as Peaky Blinders and Hardy’s own series Taboo, as well as on the film Locke. Now, the two have been commissioned to produce a series of Charles Dickens adaptations for the BBC.
The first adaptation will be Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol, which will reportedly be produced by Ridley Scott’s production company Scott Free London alongside Hardy’s company Hardy Son & Baker. Scott has worked with Hardy and Knight before on the FX series Taboo.
Knight spoke with excitement on the opportunity to engage with Dickens’ work. “Any question about narrative storytelling is answered by Dickens,” the filmmaker said. “To have the chance to revisit the text and interpret in a new way is the greatest privilege. We need luck and wisdom to do this justice.”
Though the series is now planned for BBC, it is quite possible the show will eventually make its way overseas to America. Kit Harington’s BBC miniseries Gunpowder caught the attentions of HBO while it aired this fall in the UK and the series will now be airing in the United States this December. The same could certainly be possible for Hardy and Knight’s new Dickens series.