12 Years A Slave writer John Ridley already has Idris Elba front and centre in his new TV miniseries, Guerrilla. He's adding Freida Pinto to the cast.
Though original reports pointed to Elba (who is also an executive producer) playing one half of an activist couple, it appears now that Pinto will be the one in the midst of the action. She'll be Jas, who along with a bloke named Marcus forms a radical underground cell in early 1970s London. They target the Black Power Desk, a counter-intelligence unit that was actually set up within the Special Branch at the time to investigate and destroy black activism. And the pressure will not just come from without, as the couple struggles with their choices and the effect on their relationship...
Elba will no doubt be at the heart of the action too, but his actual role has yet to be revealed. Ridley is writing the majority of the episodes and directing the first two plus the finale and Luther's handling the others. Guerrilla will be shown by Showtime in the States and Sky Atlantic over here, but there's no air date yet. We do at least know it kicks off shooting this summer.
Pinto last showed up in Terrence Malick's Knight Of Cups and has roles in Love Sonia and Andy Serkis' take on The Jungle Book, which won't now arrive until 2018.