FX ORDERS DRAMA SERIES "TABOO"

From Award-Winning Producer Ridley Scott, BAFTA-Winning Actor/Producer Tom Hardy, and Academy Award-Nominated Writer Steven Knight, and Starring Hardy

Production of the Eight-Episode First Season Begins in mid- to late 2015 in the U.K.

BBC One commissioned the series and will air in the U.K.

LOS ANGELES, November 18, 2014 - FX will tempt viewers with Taboo, a drama series from award-winning producer Ridley Scott, Academy Award-nominated writer Steven Knight and award-winning actor/producer Tom Hardy who will also star, it was announced today by Nick Grad and Eric Schrier, Presidents of Original Programming, FX Networks and FX Productions. Scott Free Films and Hardy Son & Baker will commence production in mid- to late 2015 in the U.K., with the series tentatively slated to debut in mid-2016. The series is being produced for BBC One in the U.K., with Sonar Entertainment distributing internationally.

Set in 1813, Taboo is based on an original story by Hardy and his father, Chips Hardy. In Taboo, Hardy plays the lead role of "James Keziah Delaney," a rogue adventurer who returns from Africa with 14 ill-gotten diamonds to seek vengeance after the death of his father. Refusing to sell the family business to the East India Company, he sets out to build his own trade and shipping empire and finds himself playing a very dangerous game.

Taboo was created by Knight (Dirty Pretty Things, Eastern Promises, Peaky Blinders), who most recently wrote and directed the feature film Locke starring Hardy. Scott and Hardy will both serve as executive producers on Taboo.

"We are privileged to have landed Taboo and to work with this exceptional team led by Ridley, Tom and Steven," said Schrier. "Tom's passion for this project, from conceiving the original idea with his father to portraying James Delaney, promises to infuse this epic story with great personal passion and credibility."

Scott said, "FX is the perfect partner to engage with this dark, fantastic world that Tom and Steven have created. We�re glad to have them on board."

Hardy added, "Taboo is the first major production our company, Hardy Son & Baker, is setting sail on, and it gives me great pleasure to know that we are in partnership with FX and the BBC. I believe with the high standard of creative talent - with Steve Knight and Ridley Scott at the helm - and with the support and backing of these two great broadcasters, we have found the perfect home and team for Taboo."

Taboo will be produced by Scott Free London and Hardy Son & Baker for BBC One and FX Productions/FX Networks, and distributed internationally by Sonar Entertainment. Executive producers are Ridley Scott and Kate Crowe for Scott Free; Tom Hardy and Dean Baker for Hardy Son & Baker; Steven Knight; and Gene Stein for Sonar.

TOM HARDY

Tom's TV credits include; Band of Brothers, The Reckoning, the ITV adaptation of Wuthering Heights and Stuart: A Life Backwards for which he received a BAFTA nomination for BEST ACTOR in 2008.

Tom's stage performances include playing Michael in Festen at the Almeida, Lucca in Blood at the Royal Court, Dorimant in Man Of Mode at the National and Skank in In Arabia We'd All Be Kings for which he won BEST NEWCOMER at the EVENING STANDARD THEATRE AWARDS in 2003 and was nominated for an OLIVIER as MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER in 2004.

Tom's film performances include: The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, Lawless, Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy, Bronson and RocknRolla.

Tom trained at the Drama Centre London and has recently completed Fury Road, Child 44 and Legend. He is currently filming The Revenant opposite Leonardo DiCaprio.

As a producer Tom has a world wide TV first look deal with NBC Universal International and a feature film first look deal with Warner Bros. Taboo is his first major project to go in to production.

RIDLEY SCOTT

Ridley Scott has been honored with Academy Award(R) nominations for Best Director for his work on Black Hawk Down, Gladiator, and Thelma & Louise. All three films also earned him DGA Award nominations. Scott's most recent directorial credits include the hit Prometheus starring Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace and Charlize Theron and the acclaimed The Counselor, written by Cormac McCarthy and starring Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, and Javier Bardem.

Scott has garnered multiple award nominations over his illustrious career. In addition to his Academy Award(R) and DGA nominations, he also earned a Golden Globe(R) nomination for Best Director for American Gangster, starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. As he also served as a producer on the true-life drama, Scott received a BAFTA nomination for Best Film. Scott also received Golden Globe(R) and BAFTA nominations for Best Director for his epic Gladiator. The film won the Academy Award(R), Golden Globe(R), and BAFTA awards for Best Picture.

In 1977, Scott made his feature film directorial debut with The Duellists, for which he won the Best First Film Award at the Cannes Film Festival. He followed with the blockbuster science-fiction thriller Alien, which catapulted Sigourney Weaver to stardom and launched a successful franchise. In 1982, Scott directed the landmark film Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford. Considered a science-fiction classic, the futuristic thriller was added to the U.S. Library of Congress' National Film Registry in 1993, and a director's cut of Blade Runner was released to renewed acclaim in 1993 and again in 2007.

Scott's additional film directing credits include Legend, starring Tom Cruise; Someone to Watch Over Me; Black Rain, starring Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia; 1492: Conquest of Paradise; White Squall, starring Jeff Bridges; G.I. Jane, starring Demi Moore and Viggo Mortensen; Hannibal, starring Anthony Hopkins and Julianne Moore; Body of Lies, starring Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio; A Good Year, starring Russell Crowe and Albert Finney; the epic Kingdom of Heaven, with Orlando Bloom and Jeremy Irons; Matchstick Men, starring Nicolas Cage and Sam Rockwell; and the hit version of the timeless tale of Robin Hood marking his fifth collaboration with star Russell Crowe, also starring Cate Blanchett.

In television, Scott also executive produced the Emmy(R), Peabody, and Golden Globe(R) winning hit TV show The Good Wife for CBS, as well as the hit long-running series, Numbers, which ran for six seasons also on CBS. In addition, Scott also served as an executive producer on the company's long-form projects including the Starz miniseries The Pillars of The Earth; the A&E miniseries The Andromeda Strain, based on the book by Michael Crichton; the TNT miniseries The Company; and the award-winning HBO movies RKO 281, The Gathering Storm, and Into the Storm.

Scott's latest film Exodus: Gods and Kings, starring Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton, will be released in December 2014.

STEVEN KNIGHT

Steven Knight is a writer and director.

In 1988, Steve and Mike Whitehill started a freelance writing partnership providing material for television and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (co-created by Steve and produced by Celador) won awards around the globe including a BAFTA, National Television Awards, Indie Awards, Broadcast Awards, New York Festival, Silver Rose of Montreux and the Queen's Award for Enterprise.

Steve has had four novels published: The Movie House, Alphabet City, Out of the Blue and, in 2011, his first children's novel, The Last Words of Will Wolfkin.

Steve's first screenplay, Dirty Pretty Things, directed by Stephen Frears, premiered at the 2002 Venice Film Festival to outstanding reviews and was selected to open the prestigious London Film Festival. The film was released in the UK and the US to universal critical acclaim. It won a host of prestigious awards including four BIFAs, Best Film & Best Actor at the Evening Standard British Film Awards, the 2004 Humanitas Award, the Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay, Best British Screenwriter at the London Film Critics' Circle Awards and an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay at the 76th Annual Academy Awards.

His first stageplay, The President of an Empty Room, directed by Howard Davies, opened at the National Theatre, London in 2005. 2 more screenplays were released in 2007. Amazing Grace, directed by Michael Apted, and Eastern Promises, directed by David Cronenberg.

He has directed 2 films (both of which he also wrote):- his directorial debut, Hummingbird, and Locke, starring Tom Hardy, which won him a 2013 BIFA for Best Screenplay.

His screenplays: The Hundred Foot Journey (directed by Lasse Hallstr�m) released in 2014, Pawn Sacrifice (directed by Ed Zwick) premiered at the Toronto Film Festival 2014, Seventh Son (directed by Sergei Bodrov) will release in February 2015 and an Untitled John Wells Project (directed by John Wells) is currently in post production.

He is also the creator and Executive Producer/writer on Peaky Blinders Series 1 & 2 (BBC2).

ABOUT FX

FX is the flagship general entertainment basic cable channel of FX Networks, a business unit of Fox Networks Group. FX Networks is comprised of FX, FXM and FXX, its newest channel, which debuted on September 2, 2013. Launched in June of 1994, FX is carried in more than 95 million homes. The diverse schedule features a growing roster of critically-acclaimed and award-winning hit dramas series, including Sons of Anarchy, Justified, The Americans, Tyrant and The Strain; the critically-acclaimed miniseries' American Horror Story and Fargo and the upcoming miniseries American Crime Story; acclaimed hit comedy series including the award-winning Louie, Archer, Married and upcoming The Comedians, Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll and Baskets. FX is the former home of the critically-acclaimed and award winning hit drama series' The Shield, Nip/Tuck, Rescue Me and Damages. The network's library of acquired box-office hit movies is unmatched by any ad-supported television network. FX's roster of acquired hit series includes Two and a Half Men, Anger Management, In Living Color and Mike & Molly.