Idris Elba’s directorial debut Yardie has finally gotten a U.S. theatrical release date thanks to Rialto Pictures.

According to Deadline, Rialto Pictures has acquired the rights to Elba’s film and has set it for a March 15 release.

As we’ve reported in 2018, the film is based on the 1992 film of the same name by Jamaican-born British writer Victor Headley.

The story is a cross-country tale that connects Jamaica and Britain and stars Aml Ameen as D, a troubled man who never recovered from the murder of his older brother in his childhood. Thanks to the local don and music producer in Kingston, D becomes embroiled in a life of crime before he’s sent to London and reconnects with a woman from his past, who is also the mother of his child. D is set on a path away from crime, but then he is put back within the realm of the man who killed his brother, leading him toward a path of vengeance that puts him at odds with a London gangster. The film also stars Everaldo Crary, Sheldon Shepard, Shantol Jackson and Stephen Graham.

It’s a lot to handle in one film, especially for a directorial debut. But in Elba’s statement about the film’s U.S. release, Elba said the film is one with universal themes.

“I’m very happy that this movie is going to get play in the States,” said Elba in a statement, according to Deadline. “It falls in line with a very specific Afro Caribbean experience by the way of Kingston, Jamaica and East London but plays right into the heart of the universal human experience of loss and trauma. My work as an actor both in the UK and U.S. informed every decision I made as a director and my love of music give this film a pulse I know they will feel in Brooklyn.”

READ MORE:

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Sheldon Shepard

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