Universal has set an August 19, 2022 release date for Beast, a thriller starring Idris Elba. The film is directed by Baltasar Kormákur (Everest, 2 Guns, and Contraband) and written by Ryan Engle (Rampage, Non-Stop). Beast is produced by Will Packer and James Lopez, president of Will Packer Productions, with Jaime Primak Sullivan and Bernard Bellew serving as executive producers according to Deadline. Per the report, there are currently no other major studio-wide release films scheduled for that date.
In Beast, Elba plays Dr. Nate Samuels, a widowed husband, and father who returns to South Africa where he first met his wife with his teenage daughters on a long-planned trip to a game reserve. But what begins as a journey of healing jolts into a fearsome fight for survival when a massive lion, a survivor of blood-thirsty poachers who now sees all humans as the enemy, begins stalking them. The film was first announced in the fall of 2020. No other casting information has been provided at this time.
Elba has previously starred as Brixton Lore in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw as well as played Heimdall in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Elba will star in George Miller’s upcoming Three Thousand Years of Longing — Miller’s first directorial effort since Mad Max: Fury Road — along with Tilda Swinton. He will also appear in The Suicide Squad playing Robert DuBois/Bloodsport. Elba’s The Suicide Squad co-star Storm Reid, who plays Bloodsport’s daughter in the film, called Elba “the nicest person to work with” in an interview earlier this year.
“He is incredible, he’s the nicest person to work with but also so focused,” Reid explained in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. “It’s so crazy how he can, like, go in and out. He would be his character, and his character is, like, serious and then they would call cut and he would just go back into conversation and laugh and talk and I’m like, this guy is incredible. So he definitely kept me on my toes but we had a great time.”
Beast will open in theaters on August 19, 2022. Fans can next see Elba as Bloodsport in The Suicide Squad when it opens in theaters and debuts on HBO Max on August 6.
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