MOVIE NEWS: IDRIS ELBA SET TO FEATURE IN THRID SEASON OF LUTHER

The most terrifying killers once again stalk the gray streets of London — and luckily for those residents, and U.S. drama fans — John Luther is on the case.

After a two-year absence, Golden Globe winner Idris Elba (“Pacific Rim”) returns for a third season of “Luther.” This time around, when he’s not hunting the most nightmarish of killers, the detective finds romance with a beautiful shopkeeper named Mary (Sienna Guillory, “Resident Evil”) after they crash their cars into each other.

“Luther’s attraction to Mary is based on how completely different and how untouched she is. She is the furthest thing away from a murder scene, and she is bizarrely isolated in her own world,” Elba told reporters recently during a conference call.

But of course, the bane of Luther’s existence — or is she his greatest blessing? — killer Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson) resurfaces at a key moment, raising questions about Luther’s future.
“I think because of the cat-and-mouse game between them, they end up being attracted to each other,” he said. “They each own sort of a big secret about each other.”

Luther has other problems, beyond even the unusually scary killers: A retired police officer (David O’Hara, “The Tudors”) with the determination of a shark sets out to prove Luther is corrupt.

“Luther is just a target. He’s just a big target for this sort of (guy looking for) someone to blame. He’s a big, burly man who’s not afraid to speak his opinion, and he solves cases in 10 minutes. With that comes responsibility. If you drive a motorcycle without a helmet, you’re going to get flies attached to your face. Going to season three, although Luther has made an attempt to clean up his act, it’s not surprising someone is coming after him.”

This installment might conclude Luther’s journey (no spoilers from this quarter), but his story is far from over. Series creator and writer Neil Cross has finished a film script exploring Luther’s origin, and Elba is raring to launch what he envisions as a big-screen franchise.In a film, “we can really explore what makes this man tick, and go on more and weirder, experimental journeys. The origin story is a classic superhero type setup, and I’ve always likened Luther to a superhero,” he said.
Though Elba is making a name for himself in film (He plays Nelson Mandela in the autobiographical “Mandela: The Long Walk to Freedom,” set to be released later this year), he says he will never turn his back on TV. The medium gave him his first big break, as the erudite drug kingpin Stringer Bell on HBO’s acclaimed “The Wire,” and allows him to take on the most challenging parts.
And there’s one person in his household who can’t seem to get enough of “Luther,” Elba’s 11-year-old daughter.“She’s actually sneaked away and watched the first two seasons. What can I say to her? She’s a big fan of it. She hasn’t seen the third season yet.”
(That’s probably a good thing, as some of the violence lends itself to especially vivid nightmares.)

As for another TV season of “Luther,” Elba joked with a reporter, “Neil and I would consider if you would get David Bowie to score the next season. If you could do that, I think we’d be in that straight away.”

Luther is a British psychological crime drama television series starring Idris Elba as the title characterDetective Chief Inspector John Luther. A first series of six episodes was broadcast on BBC One from 4 May to 8 June 2010. The second series of four episodes was shown on BBC One in summer 2011. During the 2011 Edinburgh TV Festival, BBC One controller Danny Cohen announced a third series,[1] which ran from 2 to 23 July 2013.

Creator Neil Cross has said that Luther is influenced by both Sherlock Holmes and Columbo; the nature of Luther's intellect and its application to solving crimes is comparable to Holmes', whereas the show's use of the inverted detective format was inspired by Columbo.[23]
Culled from the website www.rte.ie; september 02 2013