In a pre-American Film Market move, Worldview Entertainment has signed on to finance and produce crime thriller “The Outsider,” starring Tom Hardy.

QED International will handle foreign sales and introduce the film to buyers next week at AFM. CAA, who packaged and arranged financing, will represent domestic rights.

Director Takashi Miike will begin early next year in Japan. Linson Entertainment’s John Linson with Art Linson alongside Worldview’s Christopher Woodrow and Molly Conners and QED’s Bill Block are producing; Worldview’s Maria Cestone and Sarah E. Johnson will exec produce with Anton Lessine and Sasha Shapiro.

“The Outsider” centers on a former G.I. in post-WWII Japan who joins a Yakuza crime family. Andrew Baldwin wrote the screenplay based on an idea by John Linson.