The script for the upcoming Peaky Blinders movie is nearly written, the BBC gangster show’s creator Steven Knight has confirmed.
Knight gave the updates during an interview on the Heart Breakfast Show, where he also confirmed the movie will be filmed in the home of the real Peaky Blinders gang: England’s second city, Birmingham.
‘Yes, I’m writing it right now,’ he said. ‘I’m nearly done writing it, and I’m setting up some film and television studios in Digbeth in Birmingham [to shoot it]. It’s where the Peaky Blinders actually roamed, so it’s like Peaky is coming home.’
Knight wouldn’t be drawn on whether the movie would be a prequel, set before the end of the World War I, or follow on from the season 6 finale.
No casting has been confirmed yet, but it’s hard to imagine a Peaky Blinders movie without Cillian Murphy as leader of the pack, Tommy Shelby.
When asked if there’ll be any familiar faces returning from the TV series, Knight confirmed there will be many returning cast members ‘and some new faces that will hopefully be quite surprising’.
Knight also said that he hoped the shoot would be underway within 18 months. ‘I’m looking forward to having a Peaky event people can watch together,’ he told the Heart Radio hosts.
Peaky Blinders launched in 2013 and is loosely based on a real gang of the same name that were active throughout Birmingham from the 1880s to the 1910s. However, the series starts in the aftermath of World War I, continuing into the 1930s and the advent of World War II.
Filming restrictions caused by Covid-19 led to series’s proposed seventh series being kibooshed back in 2020. It was announced at the time that a feature-length movie taking its place – and clearly it is now very much on its way.
Read our review of the immersive experience, Peaky Blinders: The Rise.
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