Tom Hardy To Star In Kathryn Bigelow’s Post-9/11 Tale ‘The True American’

The Oscar-winning director will helm an adaptation of The True American starring Tom Hardy. Anand Giridharadas wrote the newly published nonfiction book, which is set in Texas in the days following the September 11 attacks. Self-styled “Arab slayer” Mark Stroman murdered two immigrants, but a third man survived being shot in the head during the spree: Rais Bhuiyan, a Muslim immigrant and Bangladesh Air Force veteran, who was working at a Dallas-area convenience store as he established himself in America and worked to have his attacker spared from execution. Annapurna’s Megan Ellison, who worked with Kathryn Bigelow on Best Picture Oscar nominee Zero Dark Thirty, acquired rights to the book and will produce, with Matthew Budman exec producing. W.W. Norton & Company published The True American: Murder And Mercy In Texas last week.

Hardy most recently starred in Locke and The Dark Knight Rises and has a number of projects in the works including Child 44, Mad Max: Fury Road, Splinter Cell and Elton John biopic Rocket Man. True American will be Bigelow’s first film since helming Zero Dark Thirty. She won a directing Oscar for 2008’s The Hurt Locker.