Tom Hardy’s Al Capone Flick ‘Cicero’ Still Moving Forward, New Writer Hired To Pen Script

We’re two years from the first announcements about “Cicero,” a gangster flick at Warner Bros. that would see Tom Hardy take on the role of Al Capone. Cool, right? There was early talk of the project expanding into a trilogy, but that has died down along with most news about the project. Last we heard, the movie was aiming to start shooting this year with David Yates directing. Clearly, that’s not gonna happen, but the endeavor is far from dead.

Deadline reports that Tom Shepherd (who?) has been hired to pen a new draft of the script that was first penned by Walon Green (”The Wild Bunch,” “Sorcerer,” “The Brink’s Job”) and later rewritten by Yates. So who is this new guy? Well, he’s waiter who now has his big Hollywood break thanks to landing on the 2012 Black List with his script “Hey, Stella!” about Marlon Brando‘s journey to land the lead in Elia Kazan‘s “Streetcar Named Desire.” Not too shabby. The film itself will be a rise-and-fall account of Capone’s life, but missing from his recent update is any mention of Yates, who we presume has moved on, now busy with “Tarzan.”

So, in short — Hardy as Al Capone is still a possibility. Until then, he’s doing a triple whammy in 2013 shooting “Locke,” “Animal Rescue” and “Child 44” back-to-back-to-back, and when he’s not doing that, he’s melting hearts by doing stuff like this.