It’s Idris Elba against the king of the jungle in Beast, an upcoming survival thriller from Universal Pictures. The Hollywood Reporter reports that The Suicide Squad star has signed on to appear in the movie, which will be directed by Baltasar Kormakur. The story is based on an original idea by Jaime Primak-Sullivan, with Ryan Engle writing the screenplay.
Full plot details on Beast haven’t yet been revealed, but the story is described as being “tonally similar to The Shallows, the survival thriller featuring Blake Lively as a surfer stalked by a shark. Beast, however, features a lion as the predatory antagonist.” Other than a pigeon that stood out as perhaps the breakout star, The Shallows mostly featured just one performer in Lively for the majority of the film.
We know Elba very well for his hit roles on shows like The Wire and Luther, along with movies like The Dark Tower and Hobbs & Shaw. He will also play Bloodsport in James Gunn’s upcoming comic book adaptation The Suicide Squad. That movie is due to release in theaters on Aug. 6, 2021.
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Elba isn’t the only Hollywood star set to tussle with a lion in a movie. Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer squared off with a pair of deadly lions in the 1996 movie The Ghost and the Darkness. Jennifer’s Body star Megan Fox faced ravenous lions in Lionsgate’s new film Rogue, and you can watch the trailer for that movie below.
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