Between The Wire, American Gangster, **The Losers **and Thor, Luther star Idris Elba is becoming the very model of that old saying, the actor from over here who’s doing rather well over there. And now, it appears, he’s the new Morgan Freeman. How so? He’s replacing the actor as Dr Alex Cross in a new thriller based on James Patterson’s book Cross.
David Twohy is busy re-writing Kerry Williamson’s script, which adapts the novel and finds Cross attempting to leave the FBI and return to private practice, but becoming drawn back into cases when he tracks a serial rapist and killer who may have murdered his wife.
Freeman has played Cross in two films – 1997’s **Kiss the Girls **and 2001’s Along Came A Spider – but now it appears the producers, including Lloyd Levin are after some younger blood that can up the action quotient. But with the choice of Elba, they’ve also picked someone who has solid acting chops.
And while Paramount has been the sole home to the Cross films so far, this latest outing will be financed independently and offered to studios.
Twohy is likely to be getting to work on this one early next year, which means we’ll probably have to wait a bit longer for those long-promised Riddick sequels. Try to contain your disappointment.