Idris Elba already produces some of the things he appears in and he's stepped behind the camera for shorts, music videos and an episode of Sky's Playhouse Presents. But buried in a Screen International piece on Studiocanal's 10th anniversary is mention of him planning to make his film directing debut with a film called Yardie.
The film will adapt Victor Headley's novel, published in 1993. It follows D, a drug courier from Jamaica transporting cocaine to London. But instead of handing off the package as planned, he decides to go it alone and disappears into the streets of Hackney with a kilo of what powder to sell on his own terms. Suffice to say his treachery will not be forgiven, and soon those who set up the deal are hunting him down...
According to Screen, Studiocanal is looking to have Island Records involved to get music from the company's artists into the film.
It's clearly still early days for this one, with no casting announced or any idea of a schedule, assuming it all works out. Elba, meanwhile, is busy on the acting front, shooting the Dark Tower film, and returning to the role as Heimdall in Thor: Ragnarok after that. He'll next be seen as the dangerous Krall in Star Trek Beyond, due on July 22. You can read more about that one in the current issue of Empire.