Tom Hardy to play 'Arab Slayer' in Kathryn Bigelow's True American

The British actor will star as killer Mark Stroman in the forthcoming film

Tom Hardy will play killer Mark Stroman in Kathryn Bigelow's post-9/11 drama True American (Getty Images)

Tom Hardy has been cast in the lead for Kathryn Bigelow’s post-9/11 drama True American, it has been confirmed.

The British actor, 36, will star as murdered Mark Stroman in the film adaptation of Anand Giridharadas’ non-fiction book of the same name.

Texan vigilante Stroman attacked Rais Bhuiyan in the harrowing wake of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks.

Bhuiyan, a Bangladeshi air force veteran who had moved to the US for a job, was a victim of Stroman’s killing rampage against anyone who looked Muslim.

Self-styled as the “Arab Slayer”, Stroman later told police that he was doing “what every American wanted to” as the country was “at war”.

He was executed by lethal injection but Bhuiyan, who had been left blind in one eye, campaigned to save him.

“(Stroman’s) execution will not eradicate hate crimes from this world,” he said. “We will just simply lose another human life.”

Oscar-winning Bigelow’s directing work has centred on a similar period of late: Zero Dark Thirty was about the assassination of Obama Bin Laden and The Hurt Locker was set during the second Iraq war.

Hardy meanwhile, has tackled challenging, psychopathic roles in the past. He played Bane in The Dark Knight Rises and will star as the gangster Kray twins in a future project (see gallery above).

He is also set to join the cast of BBC Two's acclaimed drama Peaky Blinders about a gangster family in Birmingham.