Beast: Idris Elba vs. lion survival thriller gets 2022 release date

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Back in October, Universal Pictures announced that Idris Elba had signed on to star in the survival thriller Beast, which was said to be "in the vein of The Shallows but instead of sharks, a lion with be involved as the central antagonist." Now we know when we'll have the chance to see this "Idris Elba vs. a lion" film… and unfortunately, it's still over a year away. Universal will be releasing Beast on August 19, 2022.

Directed by Baltasar Kormakur (Contraband) from a screenplay by Ryan Engle (Rampage), Beast finds Elba's character 

on a trip to South Africa, only for he and his two teenage daughters to be hunted by a massive rogue lion intent on proving that the savanna has but one apex predator. 

A bit more information: Elba is playing Dr. Nate Samuels, 

a recently widowed husband who returns to South Africa where he first met his wife on a long-planned trip with their daughters to a game reserve. But what begins as a journey of healing jolts into a fearsome fight for survival when a lion, a survivor of blood-thirsty poachers who now sees all humans as the enemy, begins stalking them. 

Will Packer and James Lopez are producing Beast, with Jaime Primak Sullivan and Bernard Bellew executive producing.

According to The Wrap, the film's tagline is "Sometimes the rustle in the bushes actually is a monster." This sounds like a good time to me.