Netflix is turning one of its biggest shows into a movie
Cillian Murphy will star as one of TVs greatest ever gangster characters...
Netflix is making a movie based on the Peaky Blinders TV show, and the series’s key creative and acting talent will return for it.
Cillian Murphy will reprise his role as Tommy Shelby in the Peaky Blinders movie, which is described as “full on Peaky Blinders at war” by screenwriter Stephen Knight.
Netflix teased the upcoming film with a picture of the script, bearing the three names that make this movie project so notable.
Aside from the return of Cillian Murphy, writer Stephen Knight was the original creator of Peaky Blinders. He has plenty of film experience too, having written the brilliant Locke and Eastern Promises.
The film will be directed by Tom Harper, who directed the part of the first season of the show. And, again, he is no stranger to movie work, and directed The Aeronauts and Wild Rose.
“It seems like Tommy Shelby wasn’t finished with me,” says Cillian Murphy. “It is very gratifying to be recollaborating with Steven Knight and Tom Harper on the film version of Peaky Blinders.”
The show came to an end in 2022 after six seasons, despite earlier suggestions the intended story arc was one of seven seasons. However, before the last season aired, Knight was already teasing the Peaky Blinders story wasn’t quite done.
“While the TV series will be coming to an end, the story will continue in another form,” Knight said in a statement in 2021. If the current denouement for Peaky Blinders wasn’t the original plan, you can blame season six production delays caused by the Covid pandemic.
In an era of abrupt cancellations, it’s gratifying to see the original creative crew get together for what may be the last mainline Peaky Blinders story.
“When I first directed Peaky Blinders over 10 years ago, we didn’t know what the series would become, but we did know that there was something in the alchemy of the cast and the writing that felt explosive,” says Stephen Knight.
There are no new clues as to what the Peaky Blinders movie will be about, other than that it sounds action-packed. However, in a 2022 interview with Deadline, Knight intimated the film finale would be set during World War II.
“It’s actually set in World War II which I think I probably wouldn’t have done for series 7; I’d have probably taken it up to the war but because it’s a movie then I think we need a sort of gear change,” said Knight.
There are no firm guides as to when Peaky Blinders will come out, but with shooting due to start in September 2024, late in 2025 is the earliest best guess. It will be a co-production with BBC Films.
The six seasons of Peaky Blinders are available to watch on Netflix, and on BBC iPlayer in the UK.