Rumors circulated today that Inception‘s Tom Hardy is in talks to take a pivotal role in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. According to Moviefone, Hardy would play Sturges, a vampire mentor to young Abraham Lincoln. (Fox is producing AL: VH and would not comment on Hardy’s involvement in the film.) Combined with his mysterious lead role in Batman 3, Hardy is just a couple of years away from pop culture ubiquity. In fact, if you look at his career track closely, you find a striking array of similarities to his Dark Knight Rises co-star, Christian Bale.

Both Bale and Hardy were talented young actors who had an embarrassing (and potentially career-killing) role in a box office bomb in their younger days. Hardy played Captain Picard’s Romulan clone in Star Trek: Nemesis (which is actually better than its reputation), and Christian Bale played a singin’, dancin’, unionizin’ newsboy in Newsies (which is actually worse than its reputation). Both of them came back into prominence after playing jacked-up psychopaths (Bale in American Psycho, Hardy in Bronson.) They’re both totally Frolan (Friends of Chris Nolan). If you count Hardy stepping in for Mel Gibson in Mad Max 4, which is still set to film someday, then both actors have lead roles in post-apocalyptic reboot-fourquels. (Bale’s post-apocalyptic project being 2009′s Terminator Salvation.) Ow, my brain!

PopWatchers, do you think Tom Hardy’s 2012 will look like Christian Bale’s 2005? Would you like to see him in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, or should he be looking for artier fare to offset his expanding Nolanography?