Idris Elba Will Grace Apple With His Presence In A New Romantic Spy Thriller

Apple keeps signing big names as they build their streaming empire. The latest: Idris Elba, who has signed on to produce and star in a romantic spy thriller for the streamer, with Simon Kinberg also producing. The film will be set in Africa, but beyond that, there's very little info. Kinberg wrote and produced Mr. & Mrs. Smith, so he has a history with romantic spy thrillers starring attractive people.

THR has the news on the Idris Elba romantic spy thriller headed to Apple. There's no title, and all we really know is that the film is set in Africa. The Daily Show and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee writer Travon Free penned the script, and Elba will produce along with Simon Kinberg. And that's it, really! I wish I had more info for you on this one, gang, but there's next to nothing.

Still, landing both Elba and Kinberg is just another win for Apple, who continues to amass an impressive line-up of talent for their ever-growing streaming service. So far they've released original shows and movies featuring Tom Hanks, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Evans, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and more. And in the future, they'll have the Will Smith movie Emancipation, and Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, just to name a few upcoming projects.

Apple also just cut a big deal with Scorsese for TV and film projects, and with DiCaprio's Appian Way for TV and documentaries. Apple has deep pockets so they can afford to wrangle all these heavy hitters together. They also provide a promise of theatrical releases for feature films, something Netflix has always been a little skittish about. No doubt the theatrical promise is what's made them so attractive to Scorsese.

This isn't Kinberg's first Apple project, either. He's working with them on an untitled sci-fi series and the spy thriller film 355, starring Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, Lupita Nyong'o, Diane Kruger, Sebastian Stan, and Édgar Ramírez, due out sometime in 2021.