Quentin Tarantino once referred to the Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike as “the godfather of ultra-violent, get-under-your-skin movies.” Since his debut in 1991, Takashi Miike has created some of cinema’s most and controversial films, including Gozu, Audition, Ichi the Killer, and 13 Assassins.

After 22 years of directing feature films in Japan, Miike is now in talks to make his English-language debut with The Outsider, based on an original script developed by John Linson and written by Andrew Baldwin, with Tom Hardy attached to star.

The story is set in post-World War II Japan and will find The Dark Knight Rises star playing an American G.I. who becomes a member of the notorious Japanese Yakuza. Linson is best known as an executive producer on FX’s gangster-biker series Sons of Anarchy and the last we heard of Andrew Baldwin, the Black List screenwriter was working on Nicolas Winding Refn’s upcoming remake of Logan’s Run.

Joel Silver, known for producing action-packed blockbusters like Die Hard, Predator, and The Matrix, is on-board as well. The Outsider sounds closer to 13 Assassins and Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai than the director’s more grisly, horrific affairs. Still, I’m sure Miike’s signature brand of ultra-violence will be glimpsed in scenes involving the Yakuza and their enemies.

The Outsider will shoot in Japan early next year. Tom Hardy can next be seen as the titular star of George Miller’s 2014 film, Mad Max: Fury Road.

[Source: Deadline]