Idris Elba signs up for 'Cross'

Idris Elba will lead the cast of Cross, the latest big screen adaptation of a James Patterson novel.

The Losers star Elba will continue the role played by Morgan Freeman in Kiss The Girls (1997) and Along Came A Spider (2001).

Cross, directed by David Twohy, sees the detective pursuing a serial rapist who may have killed his pregnant wife years earlier.

The independently-financed project will begin production in 2011, according to Deadline.

Elba recently appeared in BBC drama Luther and can next be seen in heist movie Takers and Kenneth Branagh's Thor.