Hardy was named the Orange Wednesdays Rising Star at a ceremony held in the Royal Opera House in London. His competitors for the award were Gemma Arterton, Andrew Garfield, Aaron Johnson and Emma Stone.

The busy Hardy was last seen in Inception, and will be seen in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy next year. He will play a villain in The Dark Knight Rises, also due out next year.

The Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award is the only British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award to be voted on by the British public.

The other four nominees for the award include: Gemma Arterton (Clash of the Titans), Andrew Garfield (The Social Network), Aaron Johnson (Nowhere Boy) and Emma Stone (Superbad).

“It is so important to involve the general public in helping us determine the stars of the future, which is why the Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award is such a fantastic initiative, said Finola Dwyer, chair of BAFTA’s Film Committee. “Our final five are truly representative of the rising stars who are capturing film fans’ hearts and minds, and I look forward to congratulating our winner on the night!”

The link to the Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award voting is located here.

The BAFTA Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, February 11.

The delay in Mad Max: Fury Road, in which Hardy will be playing Mad Max, left room in Hardy’s schedule to take on another role.

It’s not known what his role in the movie will be, but speculation is that he will be playing a villain.

Bruce Wayne/Batman will be played by Christian Bale, and his loyal butler Alfred will be played by Michael Caine.

Mad Max: Fury Road was delayed, with shooting now not expected to begin until February of 2012.

Hardy will play one of two spies who wages black-ops warfare on each other when they both fall for the same girl (Reese Witherspoon). The other spy will be played by another Star Trek alum, Chris Pine.

This Means War is expected to be released in 2011.

As reported recently at TrekToday, Hardy was in the running to replace Mel Gibson as Mad Max in Mad Max 4: Fury Word.

In addition to Hardy, Charlize Theron (Monster) will also be in the post-apocalyptic film.

Filming for Max Max 4 will begin next August, in Australia. There are no details on the plot yet, but it is known that there will be plenty of stunt work, with “super fast vehicles” that are under development. “It’s obviously over-the-top,” said Director George Miller. “But they’ll [the vehicles] have to be very high performance because the film is shot in speed, and they’ll have to be very, very safe. The reason this movie is so big is that there’s just a huge number of stunts. We’re trying to do stuff that I believe people haven’t done before.”

Hardy is up for the role of Mad Max in Mad Max 4: Fury Road. Mad Max was last played by Mel Gibson in 1985′s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

Charlize Theron (Monster) is director George Miller‘s top choice for the female lead in the sequel.

Everything is tentative this early in the process. According to E!Online, “the Mad Max revamp is a long way from fruition, and Miller is being very secretive about the roles and plot. Actors auditioning for the film have only been given a letter for their character’s name. The studio has yet to sign off on Miller’s choices, and no formal offers have been made.”

After Star Trek: Nemesis flopped at the box office, Hardy, thought to be the “Next Big Thing,” descended into alcohol and crack addition, which cost him his marriage. “I went entirely off the rails and I’m lucky I didn’t have some terrible accident or end up in prison or dead, because that’s where I was going,” he said. “Now I know my beast and I know how to manage it. It’s like living with a four-hundred-pound orangutan that wants to kill me. It’s much more powerful than me, doesn’t speak the same language and it runs around the darkness of my soul. I would sell my mother for a rock of crack.”

Hardy understands why he drank. “The drink is a symptom of a problem, an inability to accept life on its own terms,” he said.

The rejection rate of Hollywood helped to make him insecure and more vulnerable. “It’s a brutal business but it’s masochism, isn’t it? If you have a capacity for damage and you live with damage, then you seek damage.”

Becoming a father a year ago has changed Hardy. “It’s no longer about just you. You have to get on with things. I may be working away a lot but I’m working damned hard to make sure my boy is getting everything he needs.”