Ups and Downs: Elba co-directs survival thriller ABOVE THE BELOW…

There’s the old adage that all you need for good drama is to confine people in an enclosed space and watch what happens.

Above the Below  takes that basic concept to two extremes of man against the void, relating the story of astronauts who, firstly, have to survive an incident in the upper atmosphere and then the crisis when their capsule, having made it back, starts to sink in the ocean.

The thriller stars Idris Elba, Caitlin FitzGerald and Hero Fiennes Tiffin with Elba also getting a co-direction credit alongside Martin Owen. (Elizabeth Morris, Matt Mitchell, and Vicki Sargent wrote the screenplay from a story by Owen).   FitzGerald is known for her theatre work and tv roles in Masters of Sex and  Sweetbitter. Tiffin played the young Tom Riddle in the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince film and more recently starred as the title character in Amazon‘s Young Sherlock series.

The film was shot between November 2023 and February 2024 and used the massive water tanks at Pinewood Studios near London. It will be released by Lionsgate on 4th December 2026.