Idris Elba and Jasmine Trinca Join Sean Penn In 'The Gunman'

It's going to be an extremely busy year for Idris Elba, one that sees him in three films that will reach wildly different audiences. This summer he'll lead the human resistance in Pacific Rim, then in November he'll defend the Rainbow Bridge in Thor: The Dark World, followed by a potential Oscar-worthy role in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. So what's he going to do next? How about starring alongside Sean Penn and Javier Bardem in the hit man thriller, The Gunman?

THR reports that Elba will join the adaptation of Jean-Patrick Manchette's novel, The Prone Gunman, which has Penn as an assassin who wants to exit the business and be with his sweetheart, but his bosses won't let him go so easily. Playing Penn's lover (according to TheWrap) is the newly-signed Jasmine Trinca (The Son's Room), whose character married Bardem's out of spite. Elba will play a dangerous operative named Dupont who will stop at nothing to get his way.

Written by Pete Travis (Dredd) and directed by Pierre Morel (Taken), The Gunman is slated to begin production later this month.