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The last time we spoke to Idris Elba, we were on the bullet train, the Shinkansen, from Kyoto to Tokyo to talk about his 2017 reality show “Idris Elba: Fighter.” “I don’t make decisions to please the fans,” the actor told us, as he put aside the scripts of two films—the Stephen King flick “The Dark Tower” and “Thor: Ragnarok”—that he was studying during the two-hour and 20-minute trip.
Last week, we saw Idris again, albeit in a virtual roundtable, to discuss his role in Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur’s terrifying new thriller “Beast,” about a lion that goes rogue after poachers kill its pride.
The film, which will open in Philippine cinemas next week (Aug. 24), casts Idris as Nate Samuels, an American physician who takes his teenage daughters Meredith (Iyana Halley) and Nora (Leah Jeffries) to a game reserve in South Africa after his estranged wife succumbs to cancer.
The trip was arranged by antipoaching advocate Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley of “District 9”), a close family friend who runs a game reserve, to fix Nate’s strained relationship with Meredith, who blames him for breaking up the family, as well as for his failure to treat his ex-wife.
It’s this family conflict that raises the stakes for Nate, who’s suddenly thrust in a life-or-death situation when he and his daughters are caught in the crossfire between the vengeful lion and the remorseless poachers.
We watched the movie alone in a preview room, shaken by the gravity of the do-or-die drama as much as by the evils of poaching. It was even more heartbreaking for us to learn later that there are only about 20,000 of these regal beasts left in Africa these days, compared to 200,000 about a hundred years ago—that’s a 90-percent decline in its population! Moreover, lions are now extinct in 26 countries in Africa.
“I learned so much from this film,” said producer Will Packer (“Girls Trip,” the “Ride Along” franchise). “I didn’t realize how prevalent poaching was. I knew it was an issue, but actually going there, talking to the locals and understanding that ecosystem, I realized how much of a problem it is.
“You know, this film is not in any way intended to be preachy. It is meant to be entertaining, but it does have an educational element underneath its story … because it does deal with this very real issue. That was always the intention—and I think we accomplished that.”
For Baltasar, the undertaking was even more personal. “When I was kid, I used to cut out pictures of lions in Africa and put them in a little folder, which my mother brought out when I told her that I was going to make this movie. So obviously, wanting to do this came from deep inside me.
