Tom Hardy has never met a funny accent that he hasn't fallen wildly in love with. His latest is a gruff Russian number for "Child 44," a new film based on Tom Rob Smith's best-selling historical thriller that follows a former secret policeman (Hardy) who is investigating a series of grisly child murders in Soviet Russia. And you can hear that accent and see Hardy in action in the gripping new trailer.



"Child 44" is based, in part, on a real life serial killer dubbed the Red Ripper who murdered more than 50 women and children in Stalin's supposedly perfect Russia. Hardy plays a man who is clued into the killer after a friend's child is murdered. This looks really intense. The all-star supporting cast includes Gary Oldman (Batman reunion!), Joel Kinnaman, Vincent Cassel (glimpsed briefly in the trailer), Paddy Considine, Jason Clarke, Noomi Rapace (re-teaming with Hardy after "The Drop") and Dev Patel. It was directed by Chilean-Swedish filmmaker Daniel Espinosa ("Safe House") and adapted by the great Richard Price, a stellar novelist in his own right. Soviet Russia is a fascinating place to set any kind of movie, but a hardboiled thriller like this seems downright perfect.



Should the movie prove successful, it could be a rare franchise for adults, since the Hardy character took center stage in two more books written by Smith ("The Secret Speech" and "Agent 6"). We'll all find out when "Child 44" opens on April 17th.