This will be Tom Hardy's second attempt at playing Al Capone. He was previously going to play the character in a film called Cicero, directed by David Yates but the project never moved forward.
Was originally intended to be theatrically released but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these plans were dropped in favor of a direct-to-digital release.
This is the fifth time across four movies that Tom Hardy has played a version of a real life gangster or outlaw. The first was British inmate Charles Bronson in Bronson (2008) followed by Virginia bootlegger Forrest Bondurant in Lawless (2012), then both of the London mob boss twins Ronald Kray and Reggie Kray in Legend (2015), and now Chicago crime boss Al Capone in Capone (2020).
The working title, and Josh Trank's preferred title, was "Fonzo" until the release of the trailer, at which time the new title "Capone" was revealed.
In an interview, director Josh Trank stated that he felt that Capone was the closest thing to his first real movie. His previous movie Fantastic Four (2015) was plagued by studio interference and became a major critical and commercial failure. Trank was then supposed to helm a Star Wars Anthology movie, but depending on the source, he was either fired or walked away from the project after the Fantastic Four disaster. Trank said that due to his recent experiences, he had no trouble identifying with an Al Capone who has lost everything. He reportedly had to invest $150,000 of his own money to get the movie greenlit, though.