‘Bastille Day’ release may be postponed

Idris Elba’s upcoming action film Bastille Day might be postponed after the recent Paris attacks.

The thriller, which stars Elba as a CIA agent hunting terrorists in Paris, is set to be released in the UK on February 19 with a French bow following in July, but distributor StudioCanal is now considering a new strategy. “In light of the recent tragic events, we’re re-evaluating the timing of the film’s release across Europe,” a representative told Variety.

The cast of the film also includes Game of Thrones star Richard Madden, Kelly Reilly and Charlotte Le Bon. It’s directed by James Watkins, best known for horror fare such as Eden Lake and The Woman in Black.

Elba’s character is an agent “brought in from the battlefields of Syria and Iraq” who must “expose a conspiracy of chaos and greed” that is set off after a French woman decides to plant a bomb in Paris to make a radical statement.

“It’s a neo-political action flick with fight sequences and car sequences”, Elba told Marie Claire. It’s not the only film to be affected by the attacks. The release of Made in France, a thriller about a terror cell in Paris, has been postponed while Spectre’s first week of release is reported to have lost 20 per cent of its box office after cinema closures.