FX has boarded BBC drama Taboo.
The cable network has acquired stateside rights to broadcast the drama starring Tom Hardy from Steven Knight and Ridley Scott, FX announced Tuesday.
Taboo is created by Knight and based on an original story by Hardy and his father, Chips Hardy, who is on board as a consulting producer. Scott Free’s Scott and Kate Crowe will exec produce alongside the younger Hardy and Dean Baker for Hardy Son & Baker, Knight and Sonar’s Gene Stein.
Read more Tom Hardy Joins Forces With Ridley Scott for BBC Drama
Set in 1813, Taboo follows a rogue adventurer (Hardy) who returns to England from Africa with 14 ill-gotten diamonds to seek vengeance after the death of his father. Refusing to sell the family business to the East India Company, he sets out to build his own trade and shipping empire and finds himself playing a dangerous game with two warring nations, Britain and America.
Scott Free London and Hardy Son & Baker are producing the project for BBC One and Sonar Entertainment, which is distributing the series in territories outside the U.K.
Production on the eight-episode first season is set to begin in mid- to late 2015 in the U.K. for a 2016 debut.
“Taboo is the first major production our company, Hardy Son & Baker, is setting sail on, and it gives me great pleasure to know that we are in partnership with FX and the BBC,” said Hardy, who will reunite with Locke writer-director Knight. “I believe with the high standard of creative talent — with Steve Knight and Ridley Scott at the helm — and with the support and backing of these two great broadcasters, we have found the perfect home and team for Taboo.”
Taboo joins a roster of original dramas at FX including the final seasons of Sons of Anarchy and Justified as well as The Strain, The Americans, American Horror Story, Fargo, Tyrant and Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk‘s upcoming American Crime Story anthology.
Email: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
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