Idris Elba to make directorial debut with drug-trafficking thriller Yardie

It's not uncommon for stars to make the transition from actor to director: Angelina Jolie, Ben Affleck, Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster and Clint Eastwood to name a few. Now Luther star Idris Elba is reportedly setting his sights on a directorial debut by developing, and hopefully helming, gritty drug-trafficking drama Yardie for the big screen.

Based on Jamaica-born British writer Victor Headley's cult 1992 novel of the same name, the movie, written by Brock Norman Brock (who co-wrote Bronson), will tell the story of D, a courier tasked with delivering a batch of cocaine from Jamaica to London.

During the journey, however, he ventures off on his own with the drugs and finds himself on the streets of Hackney, while his former friends search him out – if they find him, D's treachery will not be forgiven.

'Yardie' is a slang term for Jamaican gangsters operating in cities such as London and New York who gained a reputation for violence during the 1980s and 1990s.

While it might be quite some time before Elba steps behind the camera, he will next be seen in front of it in Justin Lin's Star Trek Beyond opposite Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine, which opens on 22 July in the US. He's also one of the new voices of Disney Pixar sequel Finding Dory and is currently filming The Dark Tower with Abbey Lee and Matthew McConaughey. In 2017, he will reprise his role as Asgardian god Heimdall in Thor: Ragnarok.

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