Having voiced the villainous tiger Shere Khan in 2016's The Jungle Book before playing a peculiar human-cat hybrid in last year's musical fantasy movie, Cats, Idris Elba is now going to cap off his bizarre cat-themed trilogy by going toe-to-toe with a man-eating lion in Universal Pictures' man-versus-nature movie, Beast.

Though wider plot details are largely unknown, Beast has been described as a thriller and will be based on an original idea by Jaime Primak-Sullivan. The movie will be in a similar vein to the 2016 thriller The Shallows, which starred Blake Lively as an unlucky surfer who ends up stranded not far from land after she is attacked by a great white shark. Only this time it's a giant killer lion.

Baltasar Kormákur, whose previous credits include the buddy action flick 2 Guns starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg, the biographical drama Adrift starring Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin, and the real-life disaster movie Everest starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Brolin, and Elizabeth Debicki will direct Beast. Kormakur clearly has an affinity for the kind of disaster filled action that is needed for a movie centered on Idris Elba fighting a lion, with the movie providing ample opportunity for Elba's dependable intensity amid B-movie thrills. Kormakur will be working from a script written by Rampage and Non-Stop scribe Ryan Engle.

Over the last decade, Elba has amassed an impressive catalog of action-oriented credits with roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Star Trek franchise, and recently appearing on villain duty in last year's Fast and Furious spin-off, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, in which he starred as the 'black Superman' Brixton Lore.

Idris Elba is continuing his career as an action hero with the upcoming comic book movie The Suicide Squad. Directed by Guardians of the Galaxy's James Gunn, The Suicide Squad stars an all-star ensemble cast alongside Elba including Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, David Mastmalchian as Polka-Dot Man, Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher, John Cena as Peacemaker, Flula Borg as Javelin, Nathan Fillion as T.D.K., Peter Capaldi as Thinker, Pete Davidson as Black Guard, Alice Braga as Sol Soria, Sean Gunn as Weasel, Michael Rooker as Savant, Mayling Ng as Mongal, and Steve Agee as King Shark.

Elba stars in The Suicide Squad as Robert DuBois a.k.a. Bloodsport, a convicted felon who is serving time in prison for shooting Superman with a bullet made of the Man of Steel's only weakness, Kryptonite. Gunn recently took to social media to praise the actor's performance as Bloodsport in the movie saying, "I rarely write roles for actors I've never met, but I did exactly that for @idriselba in #TheSuicideSquad & couldn't be happier I did - you went beyond my expectations as an actor AND as a human being. I can't wait for folks to see you as #Bloodsport."

Alongside Beast and The Suicide Squad, Elba has several projects in the pipeline, such as the drama Concrete Cowboy, western The Harder They Fall, director George Miller's Three Thousand Years of Longing, and the big-screen debut of his beloved small-screen detective, Luther. Beast has not yet been given a release date. This comes to us courtesy of Deadline.