If you’ve ever wanted to see a drunken Edgar Allan Poe do battle with a Satanist psychic, you’re in luck. The British actor Idris Elba is developing a movie trilogy based on Marc Olden’s novel “Poe Must Die,” Variety reports.

The 1978 book by Olden, best known for his suspense novels, features Poe as an alcohol-addled hero who has to save the world from Satan. The book’s publisher, Mysterious Press, describes the novel: “Jonathan is the most powerful psychic on earth, and in service of his god Lucifer he will tear civilization apart. To combat his dark designs, mankind’s hopes rest on a half-mad alcoholic named Edgar Allan Poe. ... A bare-knuckle fighter named Pierce James Figg arrives with a letter of introduction from Charles Dickens, to beg Poe’s help chasing down the power-mad devil worshiper.”

It won’t be the first film adaptation of a Marc Olden book. The author’s novel “Black Samurai” was made into a 1977 cult classic movie starring Jim Kelly.

There’s no word yet on a possible shooting date for the movies, and it’s unknown whether Elba will act in the trilogy. The star of “Luther,” “The Wire” and “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” is one of the film industry’s most in-demand actors, however; he’s widely rumored to be the choice for the next James Bond.


Elba addressed the Bond rumors on Twitter last month. In a post featuring a goofy selfie, he tweeted, “Isn’t 007 supposed to handsome? Glad you think I’ve got a shot!”