Tom Hardy has exited Cary Fukunaga’s Blood On Snow and Benedict Cumberbatch is taking his place. More on the news below.
Jo Nesbø is the author behind such crime novels as The Headhunters, The Snowman and The Hanging Sun, all of which have been adapted into films. The latest Nesbø tome to get the adaptation treatment is Blood On Snow, the writer’s 2015 novel.
We reported last year that Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Tom Hardy were gearing up to star in the film, which is to be directed by No Time To Die director Cary Fukunaga. As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Hardy has exited the project due to scheduling issues, but he’s being replaced by another prominent British star, Benedict Cumberbatch.
Although it hasn’t been formally confirmed yet, it’s believed that Cumberbatch will play a mob boss named Fisherman. Taylor-Johnson will play Olav, a hit man ordered to kill his boss’s wife. Eva Green, Emma Laird and Ben Mendelsohn also star. Blood On Snow is set to go into production in Latvia in late February. Cumberbatch will also film Guy Ritchie’s next film Wife And Dog later this year.
Fukunaga, who also worked on the first season of True Detective and co-wrote Andy Muschietti’s 2017 horror film IT, has been accused of sexual harassment by several women who worked with him. Rolling Stone did an extensive investigation into the allegations in 2022, and nearly a dozen women accused Fukunaga of abusing his power on various productions he was involved in.
Nothing seems to have come from it, though. Fukunaga laid low for a few years but re-emerged in the public eye in 2024, directing four episodes of Masters Of The Air. Rolling Stone’s investigation also states that the director took inappropriate photos of actresses on the set of the AppleTV+ drama, which went into production in 2021, but was delayed by COVID-19.
Blood On Snow is Fukunaga’s first feature film as a director since 2021’s No Time To Die – Daniel Craig’s final bow as James Bond.
We’ll bring you more on Blood On Snow as we get it.
