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Tom Hardy Lost $2.5 Million By Making ‘Taboo’ TV Show

Tom Hardy has reportedly lost $2.5 million (£2 million) making his BBC drama Taboo.

The Revenant actor came up with the story for the period drama, created it with his father Edward “Chips” Hardy and screenwriter and producer Steven Knight and set up the new firm Taboo Productions Ltd to handle the finances for the eight-part series.

According to The Sun newspaper, accounts for the company show a shortfall of $2.5 million (£2 million) after production costs of $13 million (£10.4million) exceeded the show’s income of $10.5 million (£8.4million).

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“These new figures will make stark reading for Tom,” a source told the publication. “No matter who you are or how much money you’re worth, £2 million is a lot of money to simply throw away.”

“This is the first major TV drama Tom has overseen himself. He has written it, produced it and starred in it, so he was always going to come up against some difficulties.”

The series, which follows Tom’s adventurer character James Delaney as he builds his own shipping empire in the 1800s, premiered in the U.K. and the U.S. earlier this month (Jan17) and has already been sold to Spain, Portugal, and Russia.

However, the insider predicts Tom’s company could recoup its losses through other revenue streams following its original TV broadcast.

“Tom will hope to eventually make the money back through DVD sales, downloads, streaming and syndication rights,” the source said.

The finance issue doesn’t seem to have put the production team off though as Steven recently told Deadline he has story ideas for three seasons.

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“We have plans – well, certainly I have plans – if we get given the green light for more,” he said. “The plan is that there would be three seasons, and, as with (his other TV show) Peaky Blinders, I have had a destination in mind from the beginning, because I think it helps as a writer.”

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