Guns for hire: actor Idris Elba, filming in Croydon this week
Actor Idris Elba, tipped by some to be the next James Bond, has been spotted in Croydon this week, filming his latest all-action blockbuster.
The film is a production for Amazon called Heads of State, directed by Ilya Naishuller.
Other stars include former Miss World Priyanka Chopra and John Cena, who was seen by locals emerging from a Hollywood-style limo at one of the Croydon town centre locations, St George’s Walk, earlier this week.
Either that, or Cena was checking out the WWF offerings coming up at the Fairfield Halls…
Elba and Cena have worked together previously on superhero movie The Suicide Squad.
Businesses on St George’s Walk have closed early for filming, which continued into the early hours of Wednesday morning, with the location transformed into a Polish marketplace.
Film set: Overtons Yard filming on Tuesday night
The movie crew has also been filming around Overtons Yard, off Surrey Street, where the scenes are said to include a car crash and some (silenced) explosions filmed on top of one of the town centre’s car parks.
Filming for Heads of State started last month, and the production had previously shot scenes in Liverpool before coming to Croydon.
St George’s Walk has long been a favoured location for film-makers.
It was used for scenes from 1960s London for the 2010 British film Made In Dagenham, and was also a setting for an episode of Charlie Brooker’s TV comedy noir Black Mirror.
Last year, Croydon’s Fairfield Halls was the setting for scenes featuring Princess Diana in Netflix’s The Crown, while the town centre’s unnerving resemblance to Gotham City was put to good effect in 2011 with the filming of Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises, using a former BT office block as a city hospital.
Location shooting for Heads of State in Croydon is expected to conclude tonight.
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