Idris Elba joins Red Crown Productions’ Daniela Taplin Lundberg and Riva  Marker, Parliament Of Owls’ Cary Fukunaga and Primary Productions  principal Amy Kaufman as producers on the film. Daniel Crown and Bill  Benenson will serve as executive producers. Red Crown is funding the  film.

Beasts Of No Nation was packaged by WME Global, which arranged the  financing and will make the domestic deal. IM Global’s specialty label  Acclaim will make international sales at the Toronto Film Festival.  Fukunaga has helmed Jane Eyre and Sin Nombre and is currently helming  the HBO series True Detective. Elba is really hitting stride. He  reprises his title role in a new season of Neil Cross’s celebrated  detective series Luther, which premieres on BBC America in September,  and he plays Nelson Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, which The  Weinstein Company releases in November. He’s coming off the Guillermo  del Toro-directed Pacific Rim, which is approaching the $400 million  mark in worldwide gross.

“We fell in love with Iweala’s powerful narrative and Idris and Cary are a tremendous pairing,” said Red Crown Productions partner Lundberg.  Said Fukunaga: “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.”

Both Elba and Fukunaga are repped by WME and managed by Anonymous  Content. Elba is also with Headshell Management and Roger Charteris at  UK-based Ken McReddie. Fred Toczek is his attorney while Fukunaga’s  attorney is Michael Adler.

The story follows the journey of a young boy, Agu, who, when civil war  engulfs his West African country is forced to join a unit of mercenary  fighters. Not only must Agu face the death of his father and  disappearance of his mother and sister, but must also join a life of  violence and brutality. Agu befriends a mute boy named Strika and  together they face the crimes and hardships of war. Elba will play the  lead role of Commander and he will serve in a producing capacity as  well.

About Uzodinma Iweala:

Uzodinma Iweala, 30,  is an author, sociologist and physician who hails from Washington, DC and Nigeria. His debut novel, Beasts of No Nation, is a formation of his thesis work at Harvard. It depicts a child soldier in an unnamed African country. He is son of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala a globally renowned Nigerian economist best known for her two terms as Finance Minister of Nigeria and for her work at the World Bank and he attended Columbia University, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Harvard University, St. Albans School.

 

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