Henry Cavill and Jake Gyllenhaal Join Guy Ritchie’s New Movie

All three of the actors have worked on previous Ritchie projects and are back with him for this one, a new, untitled action thriller about extraction experts.

Director Guy Ritchie has Henry Cavill, Jake Gyllenhaal and Eiza González starring in his new movie.

Guy Ritchie has just finished shooting one movie (‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’) and is looking to roll quickly –– or at least before the year is out –– into his next project.

The new film doesn’t yet have an announced title, but Deadline has learned some information about it; written by the director, it’ll reportedly will revolve around two extraction specialists who must plan an escape path for a high-level female negotiator. And while the subject sounds serious, Ritchie has apparently laced the story with humor.

Jake Gyllenhaal as Sgt. John Kinley in 'The Covenant,' directed by Guy Ritchie, a Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film. Credit: Christopher Raphael / Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures. © 2023 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Who is in the cast?

We also know the main cast: Henry Cavill, Jake Gyllenhaal and Eiza González are all on board to star in the movie, which is set to kick off shooting in Spain this summer.

Here’s what Ritchie had to say about his choices:

“There’s something special that happens when you collaborate with the same partners regularly: you build a shorthand and a trust that lets everybody do their best work. Jake, Henry and Eiza are all astonishingly talented, committed, and engaging actors. This is going to be an action-packed movie that is both intellectually stimulating and physically exhilarating.”

And this is just the latest project that represents Ritchie drawing from the pool of people he’s worked with before. Gyllenhaal, of course, was the lead in war drama ‘The Covenant’, which was in theaters just last month. Cavill and González, meanwhile, are part of the sprawling cast for ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’, which also features Alan Ritchson, Cary Elwes, Alex Pettyfer, Henry Golding, Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Freddie Fox.

That movie’s screenplay, by Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson (who wrote the original script and pitched it to producer Jerry Bruckheimer back in 2015), Ritchie and Arash Amel, is based on war correspondent and military historian Damien Lewis’ popular book of the same name.

(L to R) Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer in film 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,' directed by Guy Ritchie.

What is the plot of the movie?

The movie, inspired by real events, will chart British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s and James Bond creator Ian Fleming’s secret World War II combat organization. The clandestine squad’s unconventional and entirely ‘ungentlemanly’ fighting techniques against the Nazis helped change the course of the war and in part gave birth to the modern Black Ops unit.

Cavill, of course, has a connection with the director that goes even further, since he co-starred in 2015’s ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’.

Also on Ritchie’s schedule? Overseeing post-production on ‘The Gentlemen’ the spin-off TV series from his eponymous 2019 crime caper.

With the new movie at a very early stage, there’s no release date set yet, but the distribution rights are on sale now at the Cannes Film Market (should anyone have a spare few million dollars lying around). ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’, meanwhile, should be out next year.

Actor Jake Gyllenhaal (left) and director Guy Ritchie (right) on the set of 'The Covenant,' a Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film. Credit: Christopher Raphael / Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures. © 2023 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.