MOVIE NEWS – The Peaky Blinders story is finally on its way back to the spotlight four full years after the original series ended in 2022, courtesy of the new Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man movie. Coming to Netflix on March 20, this film will pick up in Nazi Germany during World War II, as Cillian Murphy‘s Thomas Shelby (returning from the original show) spends his time writing a novel in a rural house while still being haunted by the ghost of his deceased daughter, Ruby. Set six years after the Peaky Blinders Season 6 finale, this movie will show Shelby returning from exile to Birmingham and confronting his illegitimate son, Duke, who has taken control of the titular gang.

Along with Murphy, multiple regular cast members from the show’s original run – Stephen Graham, Sophie Rundle, Ned Dennehy, Packy Lee – will return to reprise their roles. The cast also brings in newcomers like Dune‘s Rebecca Ferguson and The Banshees of Inisherin‘s Barry Keoghan. Also coming along for the ride is Pulp Fiction‘s Tim Roth, who enters the fray after a few behind-the-scenes adjustments to his character.

Speaking with MovieWeb about his work on Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, newcomer Tim Roth discussed the evolution of his character, Beckett. Asked about the modern parallels for his character, he said Beckett was originally written as an aristocratic elite before Roth asked if he could change it around and “make him working class.” “I felt that he was written for someone, an aristocratic character and stuff, and I asked him if I could flip it and make him working class and give him a kind of schoolteacher vibe and all that stuff. My feeling was that the people who come out of politics, in that sense, you can’t see them coming. They come, they speak your language, or they can speak your language, and the idea of someone from so far away class-wise from the Peakies wouldn’t be able to communicate with them, but this guy could, and it wasn’t a question of changing dialogue; it was just changing class. So that’s what we did.”

He also revealed some personal history, as his father fought in World War II with the Americans, running to the war because “it was a safer place” than where he was in his youth. Roth was able to use this experience with his father to help drive his new character in Peaky Blinders: “My father was in the Second World War as an American serving in the Air Force in Britain. He was an immigrant who was sent to work in the factories in England, so we have a history of that in our family, too. And then the war came along, and he ran to it because it was a safer place than what he was having as a kid. And he survived, but he never really survived in the same way as what you did with Tommy. There was no such thing as PTSD. Now, you just go on with it.”

Amidst an impressive cast of A-list stars, Tim Roth is sure to make a massive impact as the villain of the new Peaky Blinders movie. The character is a British fascist sympathizer who winds up in Duke Shelby’s world, using a reasonable and measured approach to get what he wants. Roth has spoken about wanting to avoid having his character go completely unhinged or ridiculously evil, using an even-tempered nature to give off an even scarier feel. Considering the family drama driving this story forward between Murphy’s Tommy Shelby and Keoghan’s Duke Shelby, Roth’s impact on the war and the greater story will be a key piece to follow. Looking at Duke’s indignance towards the world and Beckett’s hope to win him to his side, the stage is set for what could be a dramatic end to this intense mid-20th-century drama.

Source: MovieWeb