Idris Elba to star in adaptation of Beasts of No Nation Idris Elba, fresh from starring in Guillermo del Toro's monsters-versus-robots fantasy Pacific Rim, has lined up another film project, signing up to play the lead in Beasts of No Nation, a big-screen adaptation of Uzodinma Iweala's bestselling novel. Directed by Cary Fukunaga, the film chronicles the journey of Agu, a young boy who, caught in the middle of civil war in his West African country, is forced to join a unit of mercenary fighters. Here, haunted by the murder of his father, Agu befriends a mute boy named Strika and together they face the traumas of war: rape, death, looting and starvation. Forty-year-old Elba, who will also act as a producer on the film, will play a military commander. The Telegraph's review of the book called the story a "horrifying exposé of what life is like for some young boys in an unnamed African state afflicted by civil war," before adding that, "it casts a powerful, if gruesome spell." Fukunga is no stranger to tackling difficult, gritty subjects, having written and directed Sin Nombre, a searing, viscerally intense drama about a Honduran teenager who reunites with her long-estranged father and attempts to emigrate to America. Of Beasts of No Nation, Fukunga said: "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, who are producing, added: "We fell in love with Iweala's powerful narrative and Idris and Cary are a tremendous pairing." Elba, meanwhile, will be seen next reprising Heimdall in Thor: the Dark World (out in the UK on October 30) before appearing as Nelson Mandela in Long Walk To Freedom, which arrives here on January 3.