We like to imagine that Tom Hardy saw the reports of Casey Affleck starring in a film about racing to the South Pole and thought, “I can top that! I’m going to climb EVEREST!” Whereupon he immediately had his agent cast around for a project focused on that very idea, ending up in talks for Doug Liman’s new planned venture, Everest.
Assuming the negotiations all work out, Hardy would star as George Mallory, who in the 1920s made it his mission to become the first man to scale the massive peak. He tried twice in 1921 and 1922, but failed, with Aussie climber George Finch hot on his heels.
Though his family begged him not to try again, Mallory decided to try, using oxygen in 1924 as he and climbing partner Sandy Irvine vanished into the clouds. There – historio-spoiler alert! – the story officially ends until Mallory’s body was found in 1999 below the summit. There’s still a big question as to whether he actually made it to the top, as a photo of his wife he’d taken with him was never discovered. The credit for making it successfully, however, later went to Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made it there and back again in 1953. If you want to know more, there was a documentary about him a couple of years ago called The Wildest Dream.
Up In The Air writer Sheldon Turner is adapting the script from Jeffrey Archer’s book Paths Of Glory. Dedicated climber Liman is currently at work on All You Need Is Kill with Tom Cruise but apparently plans to take on the Everest project as his next gig.