Idris Elba to Star in Spy Romance Film Produced by Simon Kinberg

Idris Elba will star in and produce a new romantic spy film that will be featured on Apple. 

The film will be set in a currently undisclosed African country with a plot that has been likened to Mr. and Mrs. Smith. To help him execute this vision, Elba partnered with the writer of the 2005 film, Simon Kinberg.

The Daily Show writer Travon Free put together the screenplay while Elba, Kinberg, and Audrey Chon will produce the movie for Genre Films. Elba will star in the film, but his co-stars have yet to be announced. 

The film comes as Apple is starting to ramp up its original content. It will join films like Will Smith and Antoine Fuqua’s project Emancipation, which is a thriller set during the Civil War. Apple has also partnered with Paramount for Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon.

Elba and Kinberg both have first-look deals with Apple. Kinberg is working with Apple for an untitled sci-fi series. He also has another upcoming spy film, 355, for Universal that is set to release in January and stars Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penelope Cruz, Diane Kruger, and Fan Bin Bing. Fans will see Elba next in Concrete Cowboy, The Suicide Squad, and the Netflix Western The Harder They Fall.