Luther has proved to be a smash hit. It combines a gritty, urban British setting, sick and twisted protagonists and the languid, dulcet tones of the honey-throated maverick cop, Idris Elba. No wonder a feature length movie is being talked about now the show is in its third season, then.

Idris ElbaElba looking cool at London's Leicester Square

Taking the crime drama from the small screen shouldn’t be too difficult logistically; the current season is split into four one-hour episodes, and the average length for a multifaceted crime film is around two hours – all they need is a solid story. But for Elba, the issue isn’t with the practicalities, but the current state of the movie business.

He told BBC Newsbeat: “Old genre films like Seven and Kiss the Girls haven’t been made in a long time. [It] has to speak to audiences who haven’t seen the show,” he explained. “It’s a complex thing to try to turn a TV show into a film but I think we can. I think we can do it.”

Idris ElbaElba is touted as the favorite to take over as James Bond

And of the new series, which unusually features just four episodes, he said: “We wanted to just make a short run. In fact, we didn’t really have a plan for how long we were going to shoot Luther for but the third season is definitely dedicated to the fans. They waited a year and a half for it, and so I’m really, really excited to give them the third season.” Elba made his acting name portraying a character on the other side of the law: Stringer Bell in the HBO hit, The Wire. Although his character in Luther is that of a law enforcer, his nonconformist ways have seen him become a nation’s favourite. We think you’ll be seeing a Luther movie come 2015, with Elba moving onto a role as 007 not long after. You heard it here first, sort of.