Tom Hardy is in early talks to star in Everest for Sony Pictures. He will play George Mallory , the climber who tried three times in the 1920s to become the first man to scale the world’s highest mountain. Doug Liman will direct the film after he completes All You Need Is Kill at Warner Bros with Tom Cruise . An adaptation of Jeffrey Archer’s book Paths Of Glory, Everest has been adapted by Sheldon Turner (Up In The Air). Jennifer Klein is producing, and Dave Bartis, Liman’s partner at Hypnotic, will also be a producer. Liman, the Bourne Identity and Mr. And Mrs. Smith helmer who is himself an avid climber and fan of the Mallory story, has an actor who is a strong match for the intensity that burned in Mallory to get to the top of the mountain and beat another great climber, Australian George Finch (the grandfather of actor Peter Finch). Everest has been scaled many times since, but it is still dangerous–there are plenty of bodies near the final summit of those who got close b