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Luther: The Fallen Sun is currently streaming on Netflix. The crime-drama movie, starring ace British actor Idris Elba as Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) John Luther, will take off from where the series of the same name ended in 2019.
Jamie Payne, who directed the fifth series of Luther, is at the helm of the recently-streaming movie. Neil Cross, the series' creator-writer, is also the screenwriter and story writer for the two-hour-long movie.
Production started way back in 2021, with Elba announcing the same on social media in November of that very year. The synopsis of the crime-drama reads as:
“A gruesome serial killer is terrorizing London while brilliant but disgraced detective John Luther [Idris Elba] sits behind bars. Haunted by his failure to capture the cyber psychopath, who now taunts him, Luther decides to break out of prison to finish the job by any means necessary.”
Unlike the series, Luther: The Fallen Sun team didn’t set up camp in London solely. Yes, the English capital was explored through as many as 37 locations, but the crew also went to places like Iceland and Brussels to lens out several key scenes in the movie.
From SoHo to Piccadilly Circus, several familiar spots in London were utilized for Luther: The Fallen Sun
When the shooting started, Elba and his co-star Cynthia Erivo, who plays DCI Odette Raine, were spotted in London’s SoHo, the entertainment and nightlife center of the city. Other production locations include Chinatown (which borders Soho), Fleet Street, and Piccadilly Circus.
Fleet Street, one of the most famous roads in London city, houses numerous paper printing offices, while Piccadilly Circus is a noted road junction known for its Eros fountain, bright displays, and neon signage.
Piccadilly Circus can be spotted in V for Vendetta, The Dark Knight, Eternals, and Fast & Furious 6, among others.
Right after the shooting commenced, Idris Elba told Empire:
“We break out of the gritty streets of London, we take it outside of that a little bit…And that’s great. It feels like now we’re entering a different life of the Luther experience.”
Taking production outside requires heavy financing, which explains the reported $50 million budget of Luther: The Fallen Sun.
Luther fights it out in the iconic HM Dorchester Prison
Luther: The Fallen Sun team also shot a “messy and visceral” fight scene in HM Dorchester Prison when Luther, an inmate, attempts an escape. Hailing the complex choreography, the actor said of his favorite sequence:
“It's not meant to feel like a film fight, it's meant to feel like, you know, just like a mass of bodies going at it…I really enjoyed that.”
Her Majesty's Prison Service operated HM Dorchester Prison, a local men’s prison, which closed its doors in 2014. Reportedly, Enola Holmes 2, another Netflix product, was filmed there as well.
For Fallen Sun, the production team, led by designer Jon Gary Steele, painted three floors of the jail, replaced and made replicas of every historic Victorian lock, and also sourced the missing doors from Gloucester Prison, located nearby.
Other key locations used in Luther: The Fallen Sun
While the snow-clad sequences were shot in Iceland, a duel scene between Luther and the antagonist David Robey, a tech billionaire-serial killer played by the genius Andy Serkis, was filmed in the now-closed Aldwych Tube Station.
Functional from 1907 to 1994, the London Underground station served as the primary shooting location for The Imitation Game, the climax scene in V for Vendetta, and Transformers: The Last Knight, among others.
Further, the Luther: The Fallen Sun team shot water scenes in Lite Studios, Belgium. They spent almost a month comprising three weeks of preparation and a week of shooting in the Vilvoorde-based film studio. Located 348 km from London, Lite has five stages and a massive 1,450 sqm water stage.
Luther: The Fallen Sun is currently streaming on Netflix.
