Idris Elba is a gifted actor who likes to challenge himself and defy expectation (this is the man who decided to train and compete in kickboxing while being in his mid-40s, after all). Well, his next challenge seems to be that of a director. He has already inked a deal with Netflix to shepherd a film based on THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME to completion and now his debut film, YARDIE, has just released its first trailer ahead of the British theatrical release. Let's check it out:
That looks VERY stylish. Yardies, Jamaican ex-pats living in London with ties to organized crime, have not been the focus of any major films before. So this looks like it may add something very unique to the British crime genre.
Here is the official synopsis:
Set in '70s Kingston and '80s Hackney, Yardie centers on the life of a young Jamaican man named D (Aml Ameen), who has never fully recovered from the murder, committed during his childhood, of his older brother Jerry Dread (Everaldo Creary). D grows up under the wing of a Kingston Don and music producer named King Fox (Sheldon Shepherd). Fox dispatches him to London, where he reconnects with his childhood sweetheart, Yvonne (Shantol Jackson), and his daughter who he's not seen since she was a baby. He also hooks up with a soundclash crew, called High Noon. But before he can be convinced to abandon his life of crime and follow "the righteous path", he encounters the man who shot his brother 10 years earlier, and embarks on a bloody, explosive quest for retribution - a quest which brings him into conflict with vicious London gangster Rico (Stephen Graham)
YARDIE debuts August 24th in the UK. No word yet on when this will be released in the US.
- Wheels
