Spring harvest is on
Hiddleston has projects by the bushel
You’d be hardpressed to outwork Tom Hiddleston this spring. “It’s a weird one with these completely surreal coincidences that sometimes happen where the work I’ve done for the past 18 months of my life is all being released at the same time,” says the actor, who plays Hank Williams in I Saw the
Light, opening Friday. Here’s a look at what’s in store for the Brit ( better known as Loki to Marvel fans): ‘I SAW THE LIGHT’ AND ‘HIGH-RISE’ Hiddleston has two movies hitting theaters: I Saw the Light (Friday) and High-Rise (May 13), a dystopian thriller based on J.G. Ballard’s 1975 novel. For his Hank Williams biopic, singing was not optional. “I knew from the very first moment that I was not going to have someone lip-sync the movie,” says director Marc Abraham, noting Hiddleston is a baritone while Hank was a tenor. Hiddleston calls his five weeks prepping in Nashville “baptism by fire. I must have been insane to do it. I still think about it. I asked (my music coach) Rodney Crowell about it: I was like, ‘ Why did I decide to do this?’ ” Hiddleston puts on a deep twang: “And he said, ‘ Because you got more guts than sense, Tommy boy.’ ” ‘THE NIGHT MANAGER’ Hiddleston heads to television screens April 19 for the six-part AMC mini
series The Night Man
ager, the first television adaptation of the John le Carré novel in more than 20 years. Why move into TV? “It was too good,” Hiddleston says. “I read the first episode of The
Night Manager and it was 60 pages. By page 3, I was committed.” Hiddleston plays a former British soldier recruited by an intelligence operative to infiltrate the inner circle of a wealthy businessman (Hugh Laurie) and interrupt an unholy arms deal.
‘THOR: RAGNAROK’ In July, Hiddleston will reprise his fan-favorite Norse god, Loki, on the Thor: Ragnarok set down under. “I haven’t played him for three years, so it will be fun,” he says. Hiddleston recently reconnected with Chris Hemsworth, with whom he worked on the first Thor. “We became really good friends on the first one. We were kind of thrown into this enormous franchise together at the same time, and it was our first time in Hollywood, really, and we were in a foxhole together. We learned a lot about the business and about each other.” ‘KONG: SKULL ISLAND’ Hiddleston plays the lead in the upcoming King Kong movie, due out in March 2017. While much is unknown about the blockbuster, it co-stars Brie Larson (who shot the movie during her recent Oscar run), Samuel L. Jackson and John Goodman, and it will introduce audiences to the dangerous home of the king of the apes as a team of explorers ventures deep inside the treacherous primordial island. Hiddleston’s workload means that while his home base is still in London, “I’m never there.”
Tom Hiddleston will reprise his Norse god Loki in Thor: Ragnarok, shooting this July.