Idris Elba has given more update on his forthcoming ‘Luther’ film. Speaking to reporters after receiving a Special Award at the BAFTA TV awards last night (July 31), Elba confirmed the film was happening and that “the sky is the limit” when it came to what Luther could achieve in a film format.
Elba said: “I’ve maintained I’d like to see it come to a film, and that is where I think we are heading towards – a film. And I’m looking forward to making that happen. It is happening.”
He continued: “With film, the sky is the limit. You can be a little bit more bold with the storylines, and a little bit more international, and a little more up the scale. But John Luther is always going to be John Luther.”
Elba also told Sky News recently that a film was still in the works, saying he was “this close” to making it. The actor explained that there wasn’t “a real formal plan” for the future of the TV series “at the moment”, but that preparations for a film were still on the horizon.
“I’ve made it very clear that I’d like to see Luther come back as a film,” Elba said. “And I can tell you this, that we are this close to making a film of Luther.”
News of a Luther film first came to light in 2018, when Elba said: “We are really advancing on getting a movie version up on the screen. Neil [Cross, Luther creator and writer] is beavering away on writing this thing, and I think the remit for the film is to scale it up.
He added: “It will be more murder, more Volvos, more frowning Luther… essentially we just want to try to take it to a much bigger audience and scale, and perhaps international as well.”
Earlier this month, Idris Elba wrote an essay on the importance film and its impact on diversity. “Film isn’t elitist,” he wrote in the Times. “We all express ourselves through the stories we tell, what we watch and the communities we create.
“One person’s film culture is watching Spider-Man at the Rio, another’s is going to a Kurosawa season at the BFI or catching the new Christopher Nolan movie at an Imax. But it’s those smaller independent and community cinemas that have been hardest hit by the lockdown.”
He added: “We may need the money mainstream cinema from America brings in, but to create future stars and introduce new voices, independent film is where it’s at. I wouldn’t be here without it.”