Sharlto Copley Talks Role in Survival Thriller 'Beast'

*EUR caught up with “Beast” star Sharlto Copley to speak about his role in this wild thriller directed by Baltasar Kormákur and starring Idris Elba.

In the film, Elba plays a father of two teenage daughters who find themselves hunted by a massive rogue lion intent on proving that the savannah has but one apex predator.

Per press release, Elba portrays Dr. Nate Daniels, 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 managed by Martin Battles (Copley, Russian Doll series, Maleficent), an old family friend and wildlife biologist. 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.

Watch the trailer below.

Kormákur was eager to cast the South African Copley as Martin Battles because he was “so impressed” with his performance in “District Nine.”

“I came across Sharlto in District Nine several years ago and thought he was brilliant,” Kormákur said in a statement via the Universal. “I was so impressed by the wildness in his performance.”

EUR’s Ny MaGee spoke to Copley about filming “Beast” in his homeland, and whether this film plays on any fears he has about potentially deadly encounters with South African wildlife. Check out what he had to say in the clip below.

“Beast” opens in theaters nationwide on August 19.