Idris Elba has detailed how it was feasible to close down one of London’s busiest districts, Piccadilly Circus, for the upcoming Luther film.
Luther: A Fallen Sun is a continuation of the BBC TV series of the same name, which aired from 2010 to 2019, and stars Idris as John Luther, who is ‘haunted by his failure to capture the cyber psychopath who now taunts him’ and then decides to break out of prison to ‘finish the job by any means necessary’.
Another scene in the film takes place on Piccadilly Circus, which needed a permit for cameras to begin rolling.
But, it turned out that the person in charge of granting the go-ahead was a ‘huge fan’ of the programme, which Idris, 50, claimed made things a little simpler.
‘Piccadilly Circus is not easy to shut down,’ he said.
‘But it turns out apparently the person that, you know, gives out the permits says no, usually… like “no, no”, the one that said Luther, he was like ‘”Luther!”,’ he said.
‘Oh okay, you can have four nights,’ he added while appearing on Capital XTRA Breakfast with Robert Bruce and Shayna Marie.
Idris shared they ended up meeting the helpful person on set.
‘That guy was just saying you know what I mean, like Luther does have some deep roots, especially in the UK, especially in London, because we use London streets quite a bit,’ he recalled.
‘So to shut down and Piccadilly Circus was very special. I ain’t gonna lie.’
While we couldn’t envision anybody other than Idris portraying Luther, it turns out he was almost passed over for the part.
Neil Cross, the writer, said he pondered not handing the screenplay to the actor because he wasn’t sure whether he would say yes.
Neil revealed that when Luther initially aired in 2010, all of the main UK networks were attempting to cast the Obsessive actor in a series, but he had turned down all of the offers.
‘The producer at the time said “we should send it to him”, but I was like “he’s going to say no,”‘ he added.
‘It seemed to me to invite heartbreak to send to Idris just to get the inevitable no.’
But two days after they sent him the script, he expressed his interest, and the rest is history.
Listen to Capital XTRA Breakfast with Robert Bruce and Shayna Marie weekdays from 6:30am – 10am across the UK and on Global Player.
Luther: The Fallen Sun is available to stream on Netflix.
Source My Celebrity Life.