After six seasons on TV, Peaky Blinders is making the leap to the big screen with The Immortal Man. Playing now in select theaters ahead of its Netflix release later this month, The Immortal Man is set some six years after the events of season 6, and was conceived as a feature-length conclusion to Tommy Shelby's story, according to director Tom Harper.
Speaking to GamesRadar+, Harper (who previously helmed three episodes during season one, before the likes of Wild Rose and Heart of Stone) explained how plans for a Peaky Blinders movie changed over the years, and the ways The Immortal Man differs from the long-running show in order to make it more cinematic.
"Just inherently, the way we thought about it was slightly different in terms of the writing," Harper says. "It's a more singular story than the series. The series obviously jumps around from character to character, and you have multiple story lines going at any one time. This is much more focused on Tommy and this particular chapter of his life. So I think that just inherently it is more cinematic in its conception.
"Having a bit more time and money to enhance the production values is slightly different," Harper continues. "Shooting on location is really important to me. Having the ability to be able to go to all the different places that we found, from Liverpool to Manchester to Birmingham to Stoke to Leeds to Bradford… Being able to do that, rather than do it in visual effects or build it in a studio, imbues everything with a different feel and a different tone. So it's the combination of those multiple things that I think give it that cinematic filmic feel."
Unfolding against the backdrop of World War 2, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man sees Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) on a redemptive mission to save his son, Duke (Barry Keoghan), who's been caught up in a Nazi plot to tank the British economy. Though it's taken over a decade for a Peaky Blinders movie to happen, Harper confirms that series creator Steven Knight mentioned the idea to him way back in 2014, ahead of season 2.
"It was just when we'd won an RTS award, I think, and we were going up on stage and he said, 'I'm going to make a film of [Peaky Blinders] in between seasons one and two, or two and three, do you want to do it?' And I was like, 'Yeah, definitely.' And then I never heard from him for another 13 years!"
In the years since then, Cillian Murphy has become a powerhouse performer, culminating in his Best Actor Academy Award win for Oppenheimer. Harper, notes that the actor he reunited with for The Immortal Man was "both different and the same" as the one he first worked with 13 years ago.
"Like everyone who I've worked with again and and indeed myself, we've we've grown up more. We're older. We're wiser, hopefully. We've suffered more pain and more joy and more positives and more negatives. And that changes the dynamic, but we're still all the same people, I think. That makes it really interesting. Cillian has had a phenomenal career. He was brilliant 13 years ago and he's brilliant today, but he's more powerful now. He has such a powerful presence and there's a confidence and a clarity to his his performance that I think is has really he's grown into."
In a conversation with GameRadar+, Cillian Murphy explains how The Immortal Man is the "natural conclusion" of Tommy Shelby's decades-spanning story, while franchise newbie Rebecca Ferguson says the new movie works as a "standalone film."
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is on limited theatrical release now, and streams on Netflix from March 20. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies, or fill out your watchlist with our list of the best Netflix movies.
