Idris Elba to Star in Stunt Driving Series on Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Quibi

“Elba vs. Block” pits the Golden Globe-winning actor against pro driver Ken Block in a series of stunts

Idris Elba
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Idris Elba will star in a new stunt driving series alongside popular rally car driver Ken Block for Quibi, Jeffrey Katzenberg’s upcoming mobile-first streaming platform, the company announced on Thursday morning.

The show, titled “Elba vs. Block,” will feature the “Thor” actor and Block pitting a number of cars against each other in a variety of wild stunts — with names like “Wall of Death” and the “Flaming Obstacle Course.” Sounds intense.

“Ken is my driving hero,” Elba said in a statement. “I’ve never worked with a driver as skilled as him so I’m a little intimidated by his talent. I love challenges, I love speed and I’m a ‘wheel man’ so let’s see how this plays out.”

The eight-episode series is being shot in London’s Docklands and is being co-produced by Elba’s Green Door Pictures and Workerbee, a part of Endemol Shine U.K.

“I’m really excited to be partnering up with Idris on this new show,” Block said. “I’ve admired his work for years and he has a reputation as a man who likes to go fast behind the wheel of a car, so I think we’re going to have a lot of fun with these challenges that the producers have lined up for us.”

The new series is the second show announced by Quibi this week after the Los Angeles-based company said it was developing a Don Cheadle-led sci-fi series on a high school senior who finds out she isn’t human.

Set for a Spring 2020 launch, Quibi is banking on short-form content between 7-10 minutes long to attract viewers in an increasingly crowded content space. With $1 billion in funding from big-name investors like Disney and Viacom, CEO Meg Whitman and Katzenberg have started ordering shows to fill the platform, including a series based on the rise of Snapchat — a show Katzenberg compared to its own version of “The Social Network.”

“This is a completely new platform, with a completely new opportunity to tell stories in a different format,” Whitman said this past weekend while speaking at the 2019 Produced By Conference. “People are watching up to 60 minutes a day of video on their phones, and that figure is only going to get bigger with the arrival of 5G.”

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