How Taboo’s DP Conjured Painterly Tableaux of 19th Century London

When cinematographer Mark Patten got hired to shoot Tom Hardy's moody 19th century period thriller Taboo, he immediately invited Danish director Kristoffer Nyholm to check out British masterpieces at London museums. "I took Krisotoffer to see landscape paintings by William J. Turner, who was painting the Thames at the time of our story," Patten recalls. "We wanted to understand the way the light looks and start with that knowledge about the river because it gives so much life to Tom Hardy's character.

Tom Hardy & Ridley Scott Team up for FX’s Taboo

Tom Hardy came up with the story for Taboo with his father, Chips. Yup, you’re already intrigued, and also a bit touched. And you're well aware Hardy doesn't really make bad career decisions, so anything he's involved in warrants a good long look.

In Taboo, Hardy plays a rogue adventurer named James Keziah Delaney, who spends a decade swashbuckling around Africa in the early 19th century. He finally returns to London in 1814 and discovers he’s been left a strange legacy (and a huge shipping empire!) by his murdered father.