Guy Ritchie casts Henry Golding, Cary Elwes, Til Schweiger and More in ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’
Alan Ritchson, Henrique Zaga, Alex Pettyfer, Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Babs Olusanmokun are also among the new recruits.
Henry Golding plays Snake Eyes in 'Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins' from Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and Skydance.
Director Guy Ritchie is pushing ahead with the recruitment drive for his next production, ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’. He already has Henry Cavill and ‘Baby Driver’s Eiza González in the first two lead roles for this new World War II thriller, but according to Deadline, the ranks are swelling to include ‘Reacher’s Alan Ritchson, Henry Golding (who previously starred for the filmmaker in ‘The Gentlemen’), Henrique Zaga, Alex Pettyfer, Cary Elwes (another actor from Ritchie’s current prolific output, having appeared in the yet-to-be-released ‘Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre’), Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusanmokun (a third Ritchie veteran thanks to ‘Wrath of Man’) and Til Schweiger.
The script, 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.
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.
Cameras will start rolling on this one in Turkey in a couple of weeks.
Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia in Netflix's 'The Witcher.' Photo: Susie Allnutt.
Cavill will play the leader of the secret combat organization, while González, most recently seen in Michael Bay’s ‘Ambulance’, is a military sniper with extraordinary spy craft abilities.
Ritchie is hoping this one might spawn a new film franchise, and as originally reported, the cast around the main pair is now being filled with colorful characters, bringing to mind Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds’. He’ll certainly be hoping for more success than with the ‘Man from U.N.C.L.E.’ movie which starred (checks notes)… er, Henry Cavill.
And the director has been busy of late––he shot ‘Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre’ starring Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza and Hugh Grant, but has seen that one fall into release date limbo, at least outside of some European cities and online in Canada.
He followed that with ‘Guy Ritchie's The Covenant’, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, about US Army Sergeant John Kinley (Gyllenhaal) and Afghan interpreter Ahmed (Dar Salim), whose lives are put under threat in Afghanistan. Ahmed saves Kinley, but upon his return to the States, Kinley learns that Ahmed and his family aren’t being given safe passage out of the country, so he heads back to return the favor before the Talban can kill them. The film will be released in theaters on April 21st.
He's also launched a TV sequel to gangster movie ‘The Gentlemen’, which has Theo James, Eddie Halstead and Kaya Scodelario among the main cast and is also developing a sequel to 2019’s live action ‘Aladdin’.
Actor Jake Gyllenhaal (left) and director Guy Ritchie (right) on the set of 'Guy Ritchie's The Covenant,' a Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film. Credit: Christopher Raphael / Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures © 2023 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.`
