Idris Elba is undeniably the star of Will Packer’s latest movie, “Beast,” but the family story at the heart of Universal’s release was a big draw for the producer who previously shepherded “Girls Trip.” In the movie, debuting in theaters Aug. 19, Elba plays Nate Samuels, a recently widowed doctor who returns to South Africa with his two teenage daughters (Iyana Halley and Leah Sava Jeffries) and must fight to survive from a man-hunting lion.

Packer sought to offer a balance for the late summer movie calendar. “I loved the idea that it just happens to be a Black family in peril,” Packer says. “It’s not just about man versus beast – it’s a man protecting his daughters. It’s universal in those themes.”

Under his banner company of Will Packer Productions, “Beast” is another notch on the mogul’s belt for amplifying Black women as demonstrated by...