#Idris Elba to star in spy romance thriller for Apple

By Mike Fleming Jr, Deadline

Apple has asserted itself once again on the film side, winning an auction for an untitled Africa-set thriller that Idris Elba will star in. He will produce the film with Genre Films’ Simon Kinberg and Audrey Chon producing. Script was written by Travon Free (“The Daily Show”), and is set in the action spy/romance arena that launched Kinberg’s star with “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.”

Elba stars and produced “Concrete Cowboy,” set to premiere at TIFF. He also stars in “The Suicide Squad” coming summer 2021 and is about to begin production on “The Harder They Fall.”

Elba is repped by WME, The Artists Partnership and Ziffren Brittenham.

Kinberg/Chon and Genre Films are producing “Here Comes The Flood,” a heist script that Netflix won in another big auction in May. Pic just got Ozark’s Jason Bateman as its director.

Kinberg has the upcoming spy thriller “355” for Universal starring Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penelope Cruz, Diane Kruger and Fan Bin Bing set for release in Jan 2021. He also has the Apple untitled tentpole sci-fi series that’s been kept under wraps.