Exclusive: Idris Elba talks Beast, Filming In Africa, The Wire 20th Anniversary and Takers sequel
Coming out in theaters this week from Universal Pictures is the action packed thriller Beast, produced by Will Packer and starring Idris Elba.
Directed by Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur (Contraband, The Deep, 2 Guns, Everest, The Oath) from a screenplay written by Ryan Engle, the cast also includes Iyana Halley, Leah Sava Jeffries and Sharlto Copley.
Sometimes the rustle in the bushes actually is a monster. Idris Elba plays Dr. Nate Daniels, a recently widowed husband who returns to South Africa, where he first met his wife, on a long-planned trip with their daughters to a game reserve managed by Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley), an old family friend and wildlife biologist. But what begins as a journey of healing jolts into a fearsome fight for survival when a lion, a survivor of blood-thirsty poachers who now sees all humans as the enemy, begins stalking them.
For Elba, this is his sixth collaboration with producer Will Packer. They first worked together on 2005’s The Gospel, followed by 2007’s This Christmas, 2009’s Obsessed with Beyonce Knowles, 2010’s Takers, and 2014’s No Good Deed with Taraji P. Henson.
Earlier this year, he voiced Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and appeared in an uncredited cameo in post-credit scene in Thor: Love and Thunder. He will next star opposite Tilda Swinton in George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing.
Blackfilmandtv.com’s Wilson Morales caught up with Elba as he spoke about Beast, working with Packer again, filming in Africa, The Wire’s 20th Anniversary and if he’s willing to do a Takers sequel.