Idris Elba has stepped behind the camera before, most notably for 2018's Yardie. He's headed back to the director's chair — this time adding producing and starring as a combo — for refugee/prison thriller Infernus.
With a story from Tom Boyle and a screenplay by Robert Mark Kamen, it'll see Elba play Donovan Kamara, a UN human rights activist sent to investigate reports of refugees being illegally detained inside a US black site prison.
A seemingly simple task turns deadly when the world’s most dangerous inmates break free. Kamara must work to safely extricate the refugees, all while going head-to-head with a brilliant criminal mastermind. It all sounds like the sort of film you normally find Gerard Butler headlining, but Elba's no stranger to action either.
And while he'll shoot a chunk of the footage in London this autumn, Elba is also using it to boost the new TD Akuna Studios in Ghana.
"I’m excited to be back in the director’s chair, partnering with Millennium Media. Infernus is a gripping thriller with a relevant and intimate human story at its core," he says. "Thanks to the brilliant writing of Robert and Tom, we have some exceptional characters. I’m really looking forward to this opportunity both in front and behind the camera, filming across Europe, as well as bringing our production to Africa, which has an emerging film community that we are proud to be supporting."