After a bit of an extended hiatus, Idris Elba will soon be back as DCI John Luther in the fifth installment of the BBC series, and during the launch of the new season in London, Elba confirmed that Luther writer-creator Neil Cross is working on a big-screen version of Luther.
We are really advancing on getting a movie version [of the show] up on the screen. Neil is beavering away on writing this thing, and I think the remit for the film is to scale it up. Luther has all the ingredients to echo those classic [neo-noir] films of the 90s like SEVEN and ALONG CAME A SPIDER and I think what we would like to do is use that blueprint to create LUTHER the film.
Idris Elba added that the big-screen version of Luther 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." The actor has also recently said that the upcoming fifth season of Luther could also be setting the ground work for the LUTHER movie. "This one’s very particular because I think it’s one of our last TV installments – I shouldn’t say that as a matter of fact, but it was designed in the sense that Neil’s and my ambition is to take it to a larger screen," Elba said. "We paid attention to what we were writing in this show. If we are to make a movie, this show is essentially a segue to that." As far as moving the story beyond London, well, Elba says that any new location would have to be a city.
The reason cities work is there are lots of shadows and so I think those cities that have that Gotham-esque vibe to them, and I think that is mainly Europe. A film version would transfer quite easily to cities in Europe but who knows – wherever there is crime Luther will go.
The fifth season of Luther, which will consist of four-episodes, will launch on January 1, 2019 in the U.K. and find Luther once again immersed in the deepest depths of human depravity. "While the monstrous and seemingly indiscriminate killings become ever more audacious and public, Luther and new recruit D.S. Catherine Halliday played by Wunmi Mosaku are confounded by a complex tangle of leads and misdirection that seems designed to protect an untouchable corruption," reads the synopsis from the BBC. "But even as the case brings him closer than ever to the true face of evil, a reluctant Luther is forced to confront the unburied demons of his own recent past. Striding back into the line of fire, he must choose who to protect and who to sacrifice. Whatever his next move, it will have devastating consequences for those around him — and change John Luther forever." As much as I'm looking forward to another season of Luther, the thought of the brilliant detective making the leap to the big-screen is even more exciting. Sign me up.