Tom Hardy is America’s most notorious gangster in the first trailer for Josh Trank’s Capone

Once upon a time, Josh Trank was a super hot young filmmaker on the rise in Hollywood after his breakout small-time superhero coming-of-age flick Chronicle. Based on that success, Trank got tapped to give us both a modern Fantastic Four movie as well as a new standalone Star Wars movie. And then Fantastic Four… sorry, F4ntastic Four actually released. It was not good. Even worse, Trank’s allegedly unruly on-set behaviour was so bad that producer/co-writer Simon Kinberg reportedly chatted to the folks at Disney and got Trank’s Star Wars gig cancelled literally days before it was supposed to be officially unveiled.

That was 2015 and we haven’t seen anything from Trank since, but we should have as in 2016 the filmmaker started work on Fonzo, an Al Capone biopic with Tom Hardy starring as the infamous gangster. But then the film just disappeared off the radar for years for some reason. It’s back now though with a brand new, more recognizable title of Capone (“Fonzo” was a nickname based on his full name Alphonse Capone). And there’s the first trailer to boot, selling the film’s rather intriguing premise which tells of Capone’s time after his famous incarceration for tax evasion. And gives Tom Hardy another opportunity to do a funny voice.

I have to say that I’m very interested in the angle Trank is taking here. Unlike the roaring megalomaniac criminal kingpin Capone we’ve traditionally seen, this tale will deal with his final days as he developed terrible dementia due to neurosyphilis which prompted his release from prison. Or, as the script from Trank proposes, it was all just an elaborate ruse on Capone’s part to gain access to a secret fortune he had stashed away before being locked up. That’s not a chapter of Capone’s story that I’ve ever heard of, and now I definitely want to see more. Especially since Hardy seems to be acting the hell out of this with Trank giving us some pretty strong visuals.

And chances are we won’t have to wait much longer for Capone. While the film had no theatrical release date set – and with the Coronavirus lockdown keeping cinemas closed for at least a few months, one wasn’t likely – The Playlist reported yesterday Capone has been picked up by Vertical Entertainment for VOD 48-hour rental release from 12 May.

Alongside Hardy, Capone also stars Jack Lowden, Linda Cardellini, Noel Fisher, Matt Dillon, and Kyle MacLachlan. Here’s the full synopsis:

Once a ruthless businessman and bootlegger who ruled Chicago with an iron fist, Alfonse Capone was the most infamous and feared gangster of American lore. At the age of 47, following nearly a decade of imprisonment, dementia rots Alfonse’s mind and his past becomes present. Harrowing memories of his violent and brutal origins melt into his waking life. As he spends his final year surrounded by family with the FBI lying in wait, this ailing patriarch struggles to place the memory of the location of millions of dollars he hid away on his property.

Last Updated: April 16, 2020