The highly anticipated Luther movie, featuring Idris Elba as the titular detective, has just made two major talent acquisitions for its cast. The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Andy Serkis (War for the Planet of the Apes, The Lord of the Rings) and Cynthia Erivo (Bad Times at the El Royale, Genius: Aretha) have been tapped to appear in the film, which is being produced by the BBC and Netflix. According to the trade the pair will function as a “double threat” to Elba’s Luther with Erivo playing a fellow detective, described as “Luther’s nemesis,” and Serkis called “the story’s criminal villain.”
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“Neil is beavering away writing this thing and I think the remit of the film is to scale it up I guess,” Elba previously told Metro back in 2018 (to give you an idea of how long the Luther movie has been talked about). “Luther has all the ingredients to echo those classic films of the ’90s like Seven and Along Came A Spider and I think what we’d like to attempt is use that as a blueprint to create it. It will be more murder, more Volvos, more frowning Luther. Essentially we just want to try and take it to a much bigger remit and scale and perhaps international as well.”
Series creator Neil Cross penned the script for the feature film which has Jamie Payne set to step behind the camera as a directyor. Payne previously helmed the fifth series of the show, directing other tv shows like Outlander, The Alienist, and Quantico, along the way. Production on the film is reportedly scheduled to begin in November of this year. No release plans have been confirmed but with a late 2021 shooting start date penciled in a 2022 premiere doesn’t seem that far off. All five seasons of the series are streaming on HBO Max right now but have previously appeared on Netflix, where they could return around the time the movie premieres.
Erivo can next be seen in Needle in a Timestack and Disney’s live-action reboot of Pinocchio for Disney+ from director Robert Zemeckis. Serkis on the other hand will appear in The Batman, taking on the role of trusty butler Alfred Pennyworth but will likely be on the interview circuit very soon having recently directed the highly anticipated sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
Check back here for more details on the Luther movie as we learn about it!
