There’s an update on the Peaky Blinders movie – and it’s good news for fans of the popular British show.
Creator of the show, Steven Knight, said in a December interview with Radio Times, “The plan is to start shooting that in the middle of next year.”
Knight also confirmed in another interview that the movie will be set during World War II.
“I’ve picked up three true stories that I’m integrating into the film. True, sort of secret and unknown stories about the Second World War, and I’ve involved the Peaky’s in there.”
Creator Steven Knight in a Radio Times interview.
What is Peaky Blinders?
Peaky Blinders is a BBC period drama set in 1900s England that premiered in 2013. It follows the criminal gang of the Peaky Blinders in Birmingham, led by Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) in the direct aftermath of World War I.
It first aired on BBC Two and was picked up by Netflix in 2014, introducing the show to a global audience. In 2019, it was given a prime-time slot on BBC One and was watched by 6.2 million viewers.
After appearing on Netflix and word-of-mouth from fans, the show gained immense popularity and was being recommended by fans and celebrities alike, with Knight saying “We’ve had an amazing response from famous people for some reason.”
Late music icon David Bowie even gave the show permission to use his music not long before he died in 2016. The show became a cultural phenomenon and is still talked about a year after its final season aired.
Both the cast of the show and its fans were left devastated back in 2021 when one of its leads, Helen McCrory, sadly died of cancer at age 52. The show consequently had to write out her character of matriarch Aunt Polly and dedicated the first episode of season 6 to McCrory’s memory. The show then ended in 2022.
Peaky Blinders Culture
Though the show received acclaim from both critics and fans, its largest impact has actually happened away from the screen. Both fans and those involved with the show have launched immersive experiences inspired by the show, such as official festivals, escape rooms and even pubs named after characters and references to the show.
Products have been launched, such as Peaky Blinders Monopoly, and ‘The Peaky Haircut’ is now a thing. Fans of the show have been known to adopt the styles and mannerisms of the characters, and some even make a living as lookalikes to Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby.
Actress Sophie Rundle, who played Ada Shelby, recounts the moment she realized just how popular the show was. “I remember sitting in a pub, and it was late afternoon, it was quite quiet. And in walked – no word of a lie – about 40 men dressed as Peaky Blinders on a stag do.”
The show has also put the West Midlands and Birmingham on the map as an iconic location, and tours of where the show was filmed are now a popular tourist attraction in the region. Knight hopes to return to Birmingham to also shoot the movie there.
Peaky Blinders and Oppenheimer
The success of Peaky Blinders has transformed the career of its main actor, Cillian Murphy, who is now one of Hollywood’s newest stars. The Irishman starred in this summer’s blockbuster biopic Oppenheimer, which made over $900 million at the box office and earned both Murphy and director Christopher Nolan large praise from critics and fans.
Murphy is now expected to be nominated for Best Actor at this year’s Oscars for his performance as the man behind the atomic bomb.
His next project is starring in and producing ‘Small Things Like These’, an adaptation of a novel by Claire Keegan. The project is backed by the production company owned by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and will reunite Murphy with many of the crew he worked with on Peaky Blinders.
Peaky Blinders can be found on BBC iPlayer and on streaming services worldwide.
