Luther Movie To Begin Filming In September, Idris Elba Reveals

The much-anticipated Luther film will go into production in September, Idris Elba has revealed.

The actor, who plays the titular character DCI John Luther, said he's 'so excited' to get to work on the movie.

"We go into production, fingers crossed, in September," the 48-year-old told Variety yesterday (21 May).

"I'm so excited about it, it's been a long time coming.

BBC

"We're very, very close to pulling the green light on production."

Bring it on.

Elba has been keen to take the character to the big screen for a while, and has been talking about the prospect for donkeys.

Speaking last year, he said: "I've maintained that I'd like to see [Luther] come to a film. That's what I think we're headed towards, is a film. I'm looking forward to making that happen... It is happening!

"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."

Back in 2018, he said creator Neil Cross was working hard to get the project off the ground.

BBC

"We are really advancing on getting a movie version up on the screen," he said.

"Neil is beavering away on writing this thing, and I think the remit for the film is to scale it up.

"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."

There have been five series of the BBC crime drama, the first of which aired back in 2010.

The most recent series was broadcast over four consecutive nights in 2019, and Elba said it set things up perfectly for a movie.

BBC

Speaking to LADbible at the time, he said: "When you scale a movie up, you have to give it size - that means taking it into other territories, internationally, but I still think it will feel like the 'Gotham City' in London. But obviously on a bigger international scale, it could take us anywhere.

"I'm really up for the movie now. I'm really up for it. And I think this season is set up to tee that up."

He continued: "We've made varied seasons, one season was six episodes, one was four - Luther's adaptable.

"I think if we can figure out the formula to keep an audience captivated for an hour and a half, on a movie, I think Luther has definitely got the attributes to make that happen."

Not too long to wait now then folks.

Topics: idris elba, TV and Film, Luther

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey