How many projects does Guy Ritchie currently have percolating and who keeps funding them? The man is giving Ridley Scott a run for his money as the most prolific filmmaker in Hollywood.
Deadline is reporting on Ritchie’s next film. “Wife & Dog” is set to star Benedict Cumberbatch, Rosamund Pike and Anthony Hopkins. That’s a great cast.
Plot details are being kept under wraps on the film, but it’s described as a “return to the colourful, back-stabbing world of the British aristocracy Richie explored in The Gentlemen film and TV series.” Filming is due to start in February 2025 in the UK.
Ritchie, who has directed five projects in the last four years, already has one film in the can (“In the Grey”) set for January 2025 release, and now has two films lined up to shoot next year. When will it stop? As long as Hollywood allows it to happen ..
Ritchie is coming off this year’s action-comedy “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” as well as Netflix’s “The Gentlemen”. He also has “Fountain Of Youth,” starring Natalie Portman and John Krasinski, which wrapped production in the summer and will also be unveiled in 2025.
The English-born Ritchie initially built his career in the British crime-comedy genre, from “Snatch” to “Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels,” he amassed a fanbase in the late ‘90s and early aughts that would follow him anywhere he went. Of all the Tarantino ripoffs that came after “Pulp Fiction,” Ritchie looked like one filmmaker who could actually stick around.
The problem was that the destination he decided to take next, and the ensuing paycheck-driven studio fare he partook in, weren’t what his original fans had signed up for — “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword,” “Aladdin,” “The Man From U.N.C.L.E” (not bad) “Swept Away,” and two “Sherlock Holmes” films.
Say what you will about Ritchie, and he’s had plenty of duds in his filmography, but I was a total sucker for his pandemic-released Jason Statham vehicle, “Wrath of Man,” which featured the best direction of his career and, in terms of style and tone, was a ballsy effort. Last year, Ritchie released his first war film, “The Covenant,” a fairly impressive technical feat, that seemed to be well-liked by audiences.
Jeremy Saulnier’s mysterious A24 project, formerly “October,” still has no release date. You’d think, given that it has been in post-production for almost a year now.