Zootopia, The Jungle Book, Finding Dory, a villainous role in blockbuster sequel Star Trek Beyond….few would argue that Idris Elba has enjoyed a stellar year on the big screen. There’s still time for the actor to squeeze out one more feature, though, and it heralds a return to gritty British drama.
Entitled 100 Streets, Elba leads the cast of Jim O’Hanlon’s pulsing crime thriller as Max, a retired rugby player who becomes entangled in London’s underground drug ring. What starts off as a one-time indulgence soon begins to corrupt his life from the ground up, with Gemma Arterton’s Emily experiencing the brunt of that meltdown in today’s gripping first trailer. Also starring Franz Drameh, Tom Cullen, Ken Stott, Charlie Creed-Miles, and Kierston Wareing, the official logline promises a “layered and gripping drama, which takes a fresh look at the vibrant and compelling life of residents in contemporary London – destination capital of the world.”
Despite Elba’s magnetic screen presence, along with what looks to be a strong performance from Arterton, the big question hanging over O’Hanlon’s crime caper is whether it can avoid the genre’s tried-and-tested clichés. The intense sizzle reel above is only a minute and a half long, meaning there’s naturally only so much we can glean from this early preview. Still, the fact that Elba and Arterton are attached is intriguing in and of itself.
100 Streets will open in the UK on November 11 where it’ll be released as A Hundred Streets. At the moment, there’s no mention of when Jim O’Hanlon’s pulse-pounding thriller will make its way across the pond.
