Fox Searchlight's adaptation of Dennis Lehane's Animal Rescue is gathering speed, with Noomi Rapace strongly tipped to be joining Tom Hardy on the production. The movie, an adaption of Lehane's own short story from crime anthology Boston Noir, will see the pair heading to Lehane's bleak but brilliant world for fun, good times and brutal, bloody moider.

If he signs up, Hardy will play a solitary barkeep who rescues a puppy but soon finds himself in a jam, caught up with the pup's loco former owner and a crime syndicate run out of his bar. No word on what Rapace's part would be, but we're assuming that she's not the pup's loco former owner.

Animal Rescue is Lehane's first screenwriting credit. Bringing the story to life behind the camera, meanwhile, will be Bullhead director Michael R. Roskam. His debut feature punched in with potent drama and introduced Rust And Bone's Matthias Schoenaerts to Hollywood, scoring a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nod along the way. Filming on his latest starts in March in New York.

Hardy, of course, has Splinter Cell on the horizon and Mad Max: Fury Road just wrapped in Africa . If you've come across the amazing Bane freestyling meme, you'll know that a Joaquin Phoenix-style move into the rap game isn't out of the question either.