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Idris Elba Leading Cary Fukunaga's 'Beasts of No Nation' Adaptation

by Alex Billington
August 20, 2013
Source: Deadline

Another interesting project lined up for Idris Elba, better known as Stacker Pentecost or Janek or Nelson Mandela. Red Crown Productions is developing a project with Cary Fukunaga (director of Sin Nombre, Jane Eyre) at the helm of an adaptation of Uzodinma Iweala's best-selling novel Beasts of No Nation. In addition to Fukunaga's involvement, the project has actor Idris Elba attached to produce and star in the film that will tell the story a young boy named Agu from an unnamed West African nation who grows up in a unit of mercenary fighters. Elba will play the commander. He's also in The Gunman and No Good Deed next.

A better synopsis of Uzodinma Iweala's novel and the story of Agu in Beasts of No Nation, from Amazon:

In this stunning debut novel, Agu, a young boy in an unnamed West African nation, is recruited into a unit of guerrilla fighters as civil war engulfs his country. Haunted by his father's own death at the hands of militants, Agu is vulnerable to the dangerous yet paternal nature of his new commander. While the war rages on, Agu becomes increasingly divorced from the life he had known before the conflict started—a life of school friends, church services, and time with his family still intact.

It's been fascinating to follow Cary Fukunaga ever since Sin Nombre, and I'm curious if this is his very next film before or after It. He's been working on a number of other projects including a sci-fi called Spaceless, plus No Blood, No Guts, No Glory for Focus, and the two-movie adaptation of Stephen King's clown horror story It. Red Crown, producing this film, stated: "We fell in love with Iweala's powerful narrative and Idris and Cary are a tremendous pairing." Fukunaga also gave an enthusiastic quote for the announcement: "This project has been seven years in the making, so to say I'm excited to start shooting this — and with Idris Elba as lead — would be me trying to play it cool. Red Crown has real moxie standing behind this story." Indeed.

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