Idris Elba trains child soldiers in ‘Beast of No Nation’ trailer coming to Netflix & select theaters October 16th

beasts-of-no-nation1The powerful new Netflix film starring Idris Elba recently had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and will screen at the Telluride Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, and London Film Festival.

Written and directed by Emmy Award winner Cary Fukunaga (True Detective, Sin Nombre)  and starring Golden Globe® winner Idris Elba (Luther, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), Beasts of No Nation will debut Friday, October 16, 2015, the same day in Landmark theatres in the U.S. and worldwide on Netflix in all territories where the world’s leading Internet TV network is available.

Beasts of No Nation is based on the highly acclaimed novel by Nigerian author Uzodinma Iweala, bringing to life the gripping tale of Agu, a child soldier torn from his family to fight in the civil war of an African country. Newcomer Abraham Attah gives a stunning portrayal of Agu, while Elba dominates the screen in the role of Commandant, a warlord who takes in Agu and instructs him in the ways of war.

Golden Globe winning actor Idris Elba, whose performance as Nelson Mandela in The Weinstein Company biopic Mandela: The Long Walk to Freedom earned him a Golden Globe and NAACP Image Award nominations.  In September 2014, he both starred in and executive produced box office hit No Good Deed, a thriller also starring Taraji Henson.  He was also in Pierre Morel’s The Gunman, alongside Sean Penn and Javier Bardem, and he recently completed production on A Hundred Streets, which he is also producing, as well as James Watkin’s Bastille Day and Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book. On television, Elba is best known for his portrayals of the chillingly charismatic drug lord Russell “Stringer” Bell in HBO’s series The Wire as well as detective John Luther in the BBC One series Luther.  The latter won a Golden Globe plus he received an additional Golden Globe nomination and three Emmy Award nominations.  Elba is currently in production on the final installment of Luther, which will appear as two, two-hour episodes.

Emmy Award winner Cary Fukunaga made his feature film writing and directing debut with the acclaimed film Sin Nombre for Focus Features, for which he won the directing award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. He also directed the 2011 film Jane Eyre. Most recently, he served as director and executive produced for True Detective, earning the 2014 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series.

The film is produced by Amy Kaufman and Cary Fukunaga (who previously worked together on Sin Nombre), Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Riva Marker and Dan Crown for Red Crown Productions, along with Elba. Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King are executive producers for Participant Media; Donna Gigliotti is executive producer for Levantine Films; Elizabeth Koch and Kristina Kendall are executive producers for New Balloon; and Bill Benenson, Laura Bickford and Todd Courtney are also executive producers.