Way back in 2013 following its third series, Luther creator Neil Cross ruled out a return to the small screen for Idris Elba’s detective John Luther, revealing instead that he was planning a movie adaptation of the hit BBC crime drama.
Well, since then, we have had a fourth series, with a fifth set to premiere on New Year’s Day [watch the trailer here]. However, it seems that Cross hasn’t abandoned his big screen ambitions, as Elba has revealed to Variety that things are really starting to move forward on the planned feature film.
“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. 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.”
When the moonless shadows of London give birth to a new nightmare, DCI John Luther played by Idris Elba is once more called to immerse himself 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. 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.
Luther series 5 sees Idris Elba returning as DSI John Luther alongside Dermot Crowley (DSU Martin Schenk), Michael Smiley (Benny Silver), Ruth Wilson (Alice), Patrick Malahide (George Cornelius) and newcomer Wunmi Mosaku as DS Catherine Halliday.
Originally published December 26, 2018. Updated December 25, 2018.
