Idris Elba has been cast as a special agent in new film Bastille Day.

The Wire and Luther star, who is currently reprising his role as Heimdall in Thor: The Dark World, has been lined up to take the lead role in the Vendome Pictures and Anonymous Content thriller, reports Variety.

Elba will play a US operative who is tasked with making a young American boy disappear to spare the government embarrassment. The boy is the prime suspect in an attack on the Paris metro, but after several more bombings the agent realises that he may both be innocent and the only way of discovering the real perpetrator.

The movie is currently without a director but the screenplay has been written by Andrew Baldwin, who has also penned the story for the forthcoming Tom Hardy movie The Outsider.

Elba meanwhile, will next appear in Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, which is based on Nelson Mandela's own autobiographical book, Long Walk To Freedom, published in 1994. It comes out in US cinemas on November 29 before getting a UK release on January 3, 2014. Watch a trailer for the movie below.