News

Georgian filmmaker Rusudan Glurjidze, whose anti-Putin drama “The Antique” (pictured) was nearly blocked from world premiering at the Venice Film Festival, is set to make her English-language debut with “Operation K.”

Unfolding in 1949 and 1950, the film is based on the true story of the Communist crackdown of Catholic monasteries in Czechoslovakia, resulting in mass incarcerations of thousands of monks.

Named Operation K after the Czech word for monastery (Klaster), the film charts the journey of Czech priest Josef Toufar who was tortured for defying his country’s Soviet-backed regime. Karel Roden, a veteran Czech actor whose international credits include “Orphan” and “RocknRolla,” is attached to star as Toufar.

Written by Gregory W. Jordan (“The Royal”), “Operation K” is set during the early Cold War era, as Communists were staging show trials, violently shuttering churches, and executing and imprisoning priests and nuns in then-Czechoslovakia.

Aside from “The Antique,” which is Georgia’s Oscar entry,...

I am sure you are familiar with those kinds of crime thrillers where a character (or a bunch of characters) finds oneself in the middle of a complicated gang war because they’ve robbed someone to satiate their greed, take care of some temporary hurdle in their life, or for no fault of their own. Matthew Vaughn’s Layer Cake is a great example. Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction fits the bill. Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths is an underappreciated entry into this subgenre. Abhinay Deo’s Delhi Belly, Kunal Kemmu’s Madgaon Express, Mrighdeep Singh Lamba’s Fukrey, and Rajesh Krishnan’s Lootcase are some decent films that explore the genre’s tropes through the lens of Bollywood. Then there are directors like Guy Ritchie and Joe Carnahan whose filmographies are chock-full of comedic capers like Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, RocknRolla, Smokin’ Aces, and Copshop. I...

Tom Hardy has established himself among the A-listers, all due to his impeccable acting prowess, which is seen in several of his projects. After making his debut with Black Hawk Down (2001), he garnered widespread acclaim with Christopher Nolan’s Inception.

Given that the movie was a critical and commercial success, it also marked his transition from an emerging talent to a mainstream star.

Tom Hardy in Inception | Warner Bros. Pictures

However, the actor seemed to have an amusing misunderstanding about why he was cast in the film. This was eventually solved when the film director finally spilled the beans.

Tom Hardy Had Misconception About His Inception Casting

There have been instances in Hollywood when several fascinating stories have been curated behind the scenes. One such story involved director Christopher Nolan and actor Tom Hardy during the making of the 2010 blockbuster Inception.

Suggested“They were involved at the very inception of...

Zack Snyder's 2006 film "300," based on the comic book by Frank Miller, tells a hyper-stylized and not-the-least-bit-historically-accurate version of the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC) wherein 300 Spartan soldiers managed to fend off anywhere from 120,000 to 300,000 soldiers of the Persian Empire for three full days. Both Miller's book and Snyder's film present the Spartans as teeth-gashing, testosterone-spitting, Spam-scented beefcake slabs comprised of nothing but pectoral muscles, testicles, and homophobia. They speak in "Join the Marines" recruiting slogans and disparage anything that's not at least 4000% more masculine than a two-ton bag of Tom Jones' chest hair.

Speaking of chest hair, none of the Spartans have any, happy to parade around their cartoonishly cut physiques as if they all possess a severe shirt allergy. Leading the charge is King Leonidas (Gerard Butler), a man who cannot help but add multiple exclamation marks after every sentence he speaks.

"300" was a massive hit,...

You’d lie if you say there is no interest in crime flicks, as they not only offer you to peep into the underworld and the lives of those who break law and order, but also let you be partially involved in the onscreen adventures and showdowns. Yes, the genre’s lovers can rewatch The Godfather, Casino or Goodfellas, but what about something new?

Here are 6 overlooked crime gems you need to discover, according to Redditors.

Lucky Number Slevin (2006)

First comes a star-studded neo-noir thriller, following a man who ends up in the middle of a showdown between two rival New York crime lords: The Rabbi and the Boss. Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis, Ben Kingsley and Morgan Freeman are really convincing here.

The Drop (2014)

Focusing on Tom Hardy’s barman who becomes involved in an investigation of the robbery of the local pub where he works, the movie explores the theme of criminal authorities,...

Filming is now underway on action adventure movie “Afterburn,” starring Dave Bautista and Samuel L. Jackson with Olga Kurylenko and Kristofer Hivju rounding out the cast.

The film is directed by J.J. Perry, who recently helmed Lionsgate’s “The Killer’s Game,” also with Bautista, working from a screenplay adapted by Matthew Johnson and Nimrod Antal from the “Red 5” comic book of the same name.

Set ten years after a solar flare wiped out technology across the globe, “Afterburn” follows ex-soldier Jake (Bautista), who works as a treasure hunter recovering valuable objects from the old world for powerful clients. His latest mission: team up with freedom fighter Drea (Kurylenko) to recover the Mona Lisa before an unhinged warlord gets there first.

The picture is produced by Neal H. Moritz (“Fast and Furious” franchise) and Toby Jaffe (“Total Recall”) for Original Film and Steve Richards for Endurance Media. Bautista will also produce for Dogbone Entertainment,...

Exclusive: Belgian distribution and production company Belga Films Group is reuniting with award-winning director Jaco Van Dormael to produce The Magician of Auschwitz, which will be his first English-language feature in 15 years after shooting mainly in French.

Van Dormael will direct from a screenplay adaptation by Jacob Marx Rice of Portuguese journalist and writer José António Dos Santos’ twin novels ‘The Magician of Auschwitz’ and ‘The Birkenau Scrolls’, about a Portuguese soldier, Russian girl and Jewish magician thrown together in the horror of Auschwitz.

Dos Santos drew the novels from authentic manuscripts written by members of the Sonderkommando during the Holocaust and found hidden near death camp crematoria post-liberation. They shed light on the harrowing experiences of the members of special command units composed of prisoners who were forced to help run the gas chambers and crematoria.

“Dos Santos casts a rare historical spotlight on the delusional beliefs on which...

Left to right: Wrath of Man (United Artists), Sherlock Holmes (Warner Bros.), Guy Ritchie (Shutterstock), Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels (Universal Pictures), The Gentlemen (Miramax) Graphic: The A.V. Club Guy Ritchie’s two-and-a-half-decade career as a filmmaker has been a bit of a mixed bag, and that’s being generous.

Left to right: Wrath of Man (United Artists), Sherlock Holmes (Warner Bros.), Guy Ritchie (Shutterstock), Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels (Universal Pictures), The Gentlemen (Miramax)Graphic: The A.V. Club

Guy Ritchie’s two-and-a-half-decade career as a filmmaker has been a bit of a mixed bag, and that’s being generous.

Exclusive: Giancarlo Esposito, star of series including Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad, is staying in the criminal underworld with his latest project.

Esposito, coming off another turn as the sophisticated boss of a meth empire in Netflix’s The Gentlemen, is launching his first graphic novel.

He has co-created The Venetian, a story of commitment and sacrifice set against the backdrop of Venice’s criminal underworld.

Coming out via Gallery 13, part of The Gallery Books Group, a division of Simon & Schuster, the graphic novel was co-created by screenwriter Matt Wheeler and writer, storyboard artist Jay Martin.

Wheeler is working with Esposito on his next series, six-part crime thriller Parish for AMC, where he is a co-exec producer. He recently wrote the sequel series The Italian Job for Paramount+ and penned a series adaptation of Guy Richie’s Rocknrolla that was previously in development at UCP and Dark Castle.

Paramount+, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios, and 101 Studios are teaming for a new series loosely based on the hit Showtime series “Ray Donovan.”

Titled “The Donovans,” the series will be fully written by Ronan Bennett with Guy Ritchie attached to direct and executive produce. It will be available to Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers later this year.

The official description of the series states, “With the most powerful clients in Europe, ‘The Donovans’ will see family fortunes and reputations at risk, odd alliances unfold, and betrayal around every corner; and while the family might be London’s most elite fixers today, the nature of their business means there is no guarantee what’s in store tomorrow.”

The series is executive produced by Richie, Bennett, David C. Glasser, Ron Burkle, Bob Yari, David Hutkin and Ivan Atkinson.

“Guy Richie and Ronan Bennett are the ideal dream-team to create a new global hit franchise with ‘The Donovans,...

At best, Guy Ritchie's reputation errors on the side of eclectic. The British-born director has embraced a multitude of genres, breathing new life into crime thrillers in the early days of his career before banking a hard left to experiment with historical fiction, romance, and war. The films got bigger, and slicker, as Ritchie progressed as a filmmaker. He's worked hard to launch franchises, to build heightened worlds that run on intrigue and irreverence above all. And though not every project has worked out in Ritchie's favor, his sure-footed style has always been a heady joy to watch.

Sure, Ritchie's over-the-top style is at times easy to poke fun at. He's more or less made the same movie over and over, regardless of genre. "Sherlock Holmes" is not unlike "The Man from U.N.C.L.E," nor is "Snatch" all that far off from "RockNRolla." But there's something...

We have some very sad news to close out 2023, folks. Tom Wilkinson, one of the finest and most beloved character actors of this (or any other) generation, has died suddenly at 75. Deadline was the first to report the news. The twice Oscar-nominated co-star of Michael Clayton, Batman Begins, In the Bedroom, and many more films last appeared in Disney Plus’s sequel series to his breakout role in The Full Monty.

Between 1998 and 2018, Wilkinson was one of his generation’s most prolific character actors, with his output putting him up there with Brian Cox and Brendan Gleeson. He made over 65 movies and TV series in that twenty-year period, starring in everything from high-profile arthouse fare like Todd Field’s In the Bedroom to his role as Carmine Falcone in Batman Begins. He often played villains, such as in The Lone Ranger, but had the range to take on pretty much any part.

Exclusive: The Hideaway Entertainment has snapped up rights to Level Up, a high concept spec script from screenwriters David Matalon (Totally Killer) and Matthew Altman (Feed the Devil).

A sci-fi action comedy, Level Up is about a man who wakes up bound and blindfolded in a top-secret facility deep beneath Area 51, soon discovering that he has amazing but inexplicable new abilities. His only hope to escape is the alien he’s imprisoned with… and she hates humans. But as they navigate their way out, their unconventional alliance becomes the key to saving the world from an impending global catastrophe.

Jonathan Gray and Matthew Rhodes will produce on behalf of The Hideaway Entertainment, alongside Navid McIllhargey of Vandal Entertainment and Erik Olsen of Apocalyptic Entertainment. The Hideaway’s Ryan Cassells will serve as executive producer. The team is currently meeting with directors and plans to shoot next year.

“As writers,” Matalon and Altman said,...

At the end of Guy Ritchie's 2008 gangster film "RocknRolla," a title card appeared on screen, promising that "Johnny, Archy and the Wild Bunch Will Be Back in The Real Rocknrolla." Whether this was meant as a stylistic flourish or a true promise of a sequel, it was a bold note to end on from a filmmaker known for his gutsy, in-your-face style filmmaking.

Yet well over a decade later, no sequel to "RocknRolla" has ever materialized. What happened, and could a sequel still be in the works? The answer to that question is complicated, and not just because several of the movie's stars -- including Tom Hardy and Idris Elba -- have become catastrophically famous in the intervening years. Though one cast member told an outlet the movies were planned as a trilogy, recent developments have made a "Rocknrolla" sequel seem a lot less likely. Here's everything we know:...

Tom Hardy's first major film gag was playing one of the many faceless soldiers in Ridley Scott's overwrought war thriller "Black Hawk Down" in 2001. The actor was only about 24 at the time and had just come off of the acclaimed HBO WWII miniseries "Band of Brothers." His second feature was also a war drama called "Deserter," a low-profile project that was released in 2002. Casting directors seemed to like the way Hardy looked in uniform.

Also in 2002, however, Hardy was offered a higher-profile role -- and a very challenging one -- when he was cast as Shinzon in Stuard Baird's "Star Trek: Nemesis." Shinzon was a clone of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) who had been raised in a Reman mining colony, and who would rise up against his Roluman oppressors and attempt to take control of the Romulan Star Empire. Shinzon was essentially a younger, more aggressive version of Picard,...

Snatch creator Guy Ritchie has responded to a lawsuit claiming he copied ideas for The Gentlemen from a friend and writer.

According to Variety, Ritchie submitted a filing to London’s High Court earlier this week, which denied that the idea for a long-gestating sequel to another of his movies, RocknRolla, was based on friend Mickey de Hara’s life or that he had hired him to write the sequel. Ritchie’s defense filing was delayed following a court order to give the parties time to negotiate and settle out of court.

De Hara’s claim, which emerged several months ago, said Ritchie used his script for the sequel along with plot points about his life and that this eventually had an influence on The Gentlemen, which copies the characters and specific plot points that were part of the planned sequel. His lawsuit had focused on overlaps in plot points.

If you’re a fan of Mel Gibson’s classic action flicks, be sure to stream them before they leave Max at the end of August.

All four “Lethal Weapon” movies and “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,” starring the late, great Tina Turner, will be leaving the streaming service. Luckily, you’ll have all month to watch them.

Watching the new “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” animated movie in theaters? Max has several films featuring the radical reptilians: the live-action “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze” (1991)

and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III” (1993), as well as the animated “Tmnt” (2007).

Kaiju fans will want to check out “Godzilla” (2014), “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” (2019), “King Kong” (1933) and “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” (2012).

Finally, if horror is your thing, six “Hellraiser” films and “The Ring Two” make great summer scares.

Here’s everything leaving Max in August 2023

August 5

Hard Knocks:...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Air (Ben Affleck)

Sonny Vaccaro knows his basketball. As played with reliable conviction by Matt Damon, the head scout in Nike’s dwindling hoops division has a keen eye for the next great players, attending high school all-star tournaments around the country and scanning for potential endorsements. But Sonny is also a gambler, and on the tail end of his trips he jets over to Las Vegas to lock in a couple parlays, betting on NBA money lines and spreads before throwing all his winnings away at the craps table a minute later. You get the sense this has become his beleaguered ritual. At some point those basketball instincts and his penchant to go for broke will align and finally pay off.

The decision to re-title “The Interpreter” to “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant” is an odd one, at least on the surface. For 25 years, the filmmaker’s forte has been whiz-bang action-crime movies like “Snatch,” “RocknRolla,” and the recently released “Operation Fortune,” in which his (usually English) characters rattle off banter like actors in an improv warm-up game.

“The Covenant,” on the other hand, is arguably the director’s first foray into purely dramatic territory, the kind that has thus far occupied the margins of his work. It’s an Afghanistan war film about duty and guilt, focused on a U.S. soldier’s debt to his Afghan interpreter. The premise is hardly “Ritchie-esque” upon first glance, with a straightforward intensity that conceals no surprise tonal oscillations. However, it remains firmly within Ritchie’s stylistic wheelhouse — his command of the swiftly moving camera, and its focus on violent masculine subjects,...

Guy Ritchie better get his story together lock, stock and barrel because he’s now facing a lawsuit over 2019’s The Gentlemen, with its alleged original writer claiming the director took his ideas, tweaked them and repackaged them as his own.

Variety reports that writer Mickey De Hara is suing Guy Ritchie for breach of contract, claiming in the lawsuit that he was hired to pen a sequel to 2008’s RocknRolla to bring more authentic criminal elements to the story. After handing over the script in 2018, Ritchie had apparently moved on, telling De Hara that “the time of the gangster movie was over.” Jump just two years later and Guy Ritchie releases The Gentlemen.

De Hara alleges that Guy Ritchie used “unique aspects of the plot” of his screenplay for The Gentlemen, even lifting scenes directly, moments that could be seen as a bit too specific to not have been...

Guy Ritchie is facing a lawsuit for his Matthew McConaughey-led film “The Gentlemen”.

The lawsuit was filed last month in the London High Court by writer and actor Mickey De Hara, who claims he was hired by Ritchie to write a sequel to his 2008 gangster flick “RockNRolla”. De Hara delivered the screenplay, “about a protagonist who runs a marijuana business,” as per Variety, to Ritchie in 2018, however he claims the director told him that “the time of the gangster movie was over,” suggesting the project was axed.

Nonetheless, “The Gentlemen” was released two years later.

De Hara claims that the film, which also stars Charlie Hunnam and Michelle Dockery, is a “substantial” reproduction of his script, given McConaughey portrays a gangster named Mickey who is trying to sell off his marijuana empire.

Read More: ‘The Covenant’: Jake Gyllenhaal Is A Man On A Mission In New Guy Ritchie...

Guy Ritchie is reportedly being sued over his film The Gentlemen, with writer Mickey De Hara claiming that Ritchie copied scenes from a script he had submitted to the director.

The 2020 gangster movie follows a kingpin called Mickey (Matthew McConaughey), who tries to sell off his marijuana empire. Read The Independent’s one-star review here.

In a lawsuit, which was filed in the London High Court last month and has been seen by US entertainment publication Variety, De Hara claims that Ritchie commissioned him to write a sequel to the 2008 gangster film RockNRolla, based on De Hara’s “personal life experiences” – he was once convicted of possession of cocaine and cannabis “with intent to supply”, for which he faced jail time.

De Hara reportedly claims that, in 2018, after he had sent Ritchie his screenplay about a protagonist who runs a marijuana business, Ritchie told him “the time of the gangster...

Los Angeles, April 15 (Ians) Filmmaker Guy Ritchie is being sued over his film ‘The Gentlemen’, which starred Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam and Michelle Dockery.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the London High Court last month by actor and writer Mickey De Hara, says that Ritchie commissioned De Hara to write a sequel to the 2008 gangster movie ‘RockNRolla’ based on De Hara’s “personal life experiences,” reports ‘Variety’.

But in 2018, after De Hara delivered the screenplay about a protagonist who runs a marijuana business, Ritchie told him “the time of the gangster movie was over,” intimating the project was no longer in development.

Two years later, Ritchie released ‘The Gentlemen’, in which McConaughey plays a gangster called Mickey who is trying to sell off his marijuana empire. De Hara claims the film is a “substantial” reproduction of his screenplay.

According to the lawsuit, ‘The Gentlemen’ copies De Hara’s cast of characters,...

Guy Ritchie is being sued over his film “The Gentlemen,” which starred Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam and Michelle Dockery.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the London High Court last month by actor and writer Mickey De Hara, claims that Ritchie commissioned De Hara to write a sequel to the 2008 gangster movie “RockNRolla” based on De Hara’s “personal life experiences.”.

But in 2018, after De Hara delivered the screenplay about a protagonist who runs a marijuana business., Ritchie told him “the time of the gangster movie was over,” intimating the project was no longer in development.

Two years later, Ritchie released “The Gentlemen,” in which McConaughey plays a gangster called Mickey who is trying to sell off his marijuana empire. De Hara claims the film is a “substantial” reproduction of his screenplay.

According to the lawsuit, “The Gentlemen” copies De Hara’s cast of characters, their characterization and “unique aspects...

If you’ve ever watched a Guy Ritchie movie, you’re probably familiar with his distinct style. From Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels to his recent big-budget films like Aladdin or The Gentleman, Ritchie has earned a spot as one of the most influential filmmakers of our time.

But how did Guy Ritchie get to where he is today? In this article, we’ll take you through the story of Ritchie’s journey from his humble beginnings in London all the way to the Hollywood director we know him as now.

From his breakout crime-comedy films to his more recent work as a producer, this piece will explore the highs and lows of Guy Ritchie’s career and highlight some of the key moments that have defined him as an artist. As a fan of Guy Ritchie’s work, you’ll be able to appreciate how far he has...

Fan-favorite TV series and a host of exciting films arrive on HBO and HBO Max this month. The fourth and final season of Emmy-winning drama “Succession” kicks off on March 26, so mark your calendars. Meanwhile, the long-awaited second season of “Perry Mason” is upon us with a debut on March 6, while “The Last of Us” wraps up its acclaimed first season on March 12. And the Oscar-nominated documentary “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” makes its streaming debut on March 19.

Noteworthy new library titles this month include the first two “Creed” films, the cult favorite “Speed Racer” and the Paul Rudd/Jason Segel comedy “I Love You Man.”

Check out the full list of what’s new on HBO and HBO Max in March 2023 below.

Also Read:

Where to Stream 2023’s Oscar-Nominated Movies Right Now March 1

A Dangerous Method, 2011

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, 2014 (HBO)

Basic, 2003 (HBO)

Beatriz at Dinner,...

For 25 years, I have never been much of a Guy Ritchie fan. I found the in-your-face-and-over-the-top crime dramas that made his reputation — “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,” “Snatch,” “Revolver,” and “RocknRolla” — to be empty-flashy exercises in the too-muchness of genre kinetics, overly infatuated with their post-Tarantino cutthroat cool. It was clear that Ritchie had talent, but the way just about every shot in his movies was designed to remind you of that turned the films into layer cakes that were more frosting than cake. After a while, he dropped the badass glitz and settled into a more conventional career, and some of those movies were okay. I confess that I enjoyed his remake of “Swept Away”, and he had fun applying what was left of his high-froth Add style to the Robert Downey Jr. “Sherlock Holmes” franchise. Yet I could never escape the feeling that Guy Ritchie had...

There’s nothing quite like when HBO is airing one of its trademark watercooler-worthy dramas weekly. Thankfully, we’ll get to it experience exactly that and more on HBO Max in March 2023.

The big ticket item on HBO Max this March is undoubtedly Succession Season 4 on March 26. Part prestige drama and part screwball comedy, Succession is about as fun a watch as they come. Season 4 of the series about egregious wealth will find the Roy siblings reeling after trying and failing to take down their father, Logan (Brian Cox).

HBO Max’s other major TV option this month is another weekly release from HBO. Matthew Rhys returns as the titular lawyer in Perry Mason Season 2 on March 6. Season 1 of this period piece reboot flexed the classic TV character’s detective skills. From the look of the trailer, it seems as though this is the year Perry makes his name in the court room.

Exclusive: Productivity Media (Pmi) and Wind Sun Sky Entertainment (Wss) have hired producer Navid McIlhargey as Head of Content for both companies.

McIlhargey, who previously worked at companies including New Regency and Silver Pictures, will be responsible for building a slate of live-action and animated film and TV projects and overseeing the respective content teams.

The hire comes on the heels of Pmi’s investment and first look distribution deal with Wss for film and TV.

Mcllhargey was an executive at Joe Roth’s Revolution Studios and later moved to Joel Silver’s Silver Pictures where he was an executive producer on Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla. He later became EVP at New Regency, overseeing The Darkest Hour starring Emile Hirsch and Joel Kinneman, as well as Broken City, starring Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe.

In 2015, he started his own consulting and production shingle, Vandal Entertainment, working on The Hunter’s Prayer.

Directed by Guy Ritchie, the action comedy film Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre was filmed in 2021 and boasts a cast that includes Jason Statham, Hugh Grant, Aubrey Plaza, Cary Elwes, Bugzy Malone, and Josh Hartnett. And getting U.S. distribution for this film is proving to be unexpectedly difficult. Tired of waiting for the U.S. side of things to get worked out, international distributors have gone ahead and released Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre to theatres in some countries this week, with the premiere taking place in Dubai last night.

Operation Fortune was originally supposed to receive a theatrical release from STX Entertainment in January of last year. But it was delayed while STX merged with Eros International plc., and was later bought out by Najafi Companies – after Lionsgate considered buying the company, but then dropped out of the running. Lionsgate had also considered releasing Operation Fortune in U.

"Luther" is a TV rarity. A show beloved by fans the world over, it never overstays its welcome, and shows up just when you need it. Created and written by Neil Cross, "Luther" follows Detective Chief Inspector John Luther, an officer consumed with the weight of the crimes he investigates. Across the series, Luther and the other members of his unit, including Detective Sergeant Justin Ripley (Warren Brown), Detective Superintendent Martin Schenk (Dermot Crowley), and DS Benny Silver (Michael Smiley), take to the gritty streets of London and go up against the worst the city has to offer.

When "Luther" first aired in 2010, Idris Elba's star was on the rise. He had supporting roles in films like "28 Weeks Later," "Rocknrolla," and "American Gangster," and had received critical acclaim for his turn as Stringer Bell on "The Wire." Since then, Elba has become a bonafide international star, and Dci...

The Red Sea International Film Festival (RedSeaIFF) announced on November 4, 2022 that acclaimed British director Guy Ritchie will receive an Honorary Award to recognize his exceptional contribution to the film industry at the opening ceremony of the second edition of the Festival in Jeddah on the Eastern shore of the Red Sea.

The Festival is set to run from December 1 – 10 and will present 131 feature films and shorts from 61 countries in 41 languages from both established and emerging talent.

British film director, producer, and screenwriter Guy Ritchie is considered one of the most successful directors working today. A gifted storyteller, Ritchie has a unique signature style and is renowned for a body of work including Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, RocknRolla, Sherlock Holmes, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and The Gentlemen.

During the Festival, Guy Ritchie will take part in an ‘In Conversation’ event where Festival goers will have the unique opportunity...

Click here to read the full article.

The Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia said Friday that British director Guy Ritchie will receive an “honorary award to recognize his exceptional contribution to the film industry” at the opening ceremony of the event’s second edition in Jeddah.

The festival, set on the Eastern shore of the Red Sea, will run Dec. 1-10 and present 131 feature films and shorts from 61 countries in 41 languages from established and emerging talent.

“British film director, producer, and screenwriter Guy Ritchie is considered one of the most successful directors working today,” fest organizers said. “A gifted storyteller, Ritchie has a unique signature style and is renowned for a body of work, including Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, RocknRolla, Sherlock Holmes, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and The Gentlemen.”

During the Red Sea festival, Ritchie will also participate in an “In Conversation” event, giving...

With the weather getting cooler (at least in some parts of the country) and Halloween just around the corner, it’s beginning to feel a little more like fall. And what’s better than grabbing a cup of cider, cuddling underneath your favorite blanket and watching hours and hours of movies? You’re right, nothing.

This month, HBO has a great mixture of new movies, from this summer’s sleeper hit “Elvis” to earlier-this-year’s sci-fi disaster movie “Moonfall” to a true gem of 1980s cinema, and some great spooky season starter movies.

Below you’ll find some of the very best new movies streaming on HBO Max this month.

“Elvis” Warner Bros.

There’s very little middle ground when it comes to “Elvis,” Baz Luhrmann’s extravagant musical biopic. Either you fall in love with its aesthetic, which depicts Elvis (as portrayed by “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood...

Toby Kebbell has joined Season 4 of “For All Mankind” at Apple, Variety has learned exclusively.

The alternative history series was renewed for its fourth season in July. Production on the new season is currently underway.

The series takes place in a world in which the Ussr beat the US to the moon, leading to the continuation of the space race. In Season 3, Mars becomes the new frontier for not only NASA and the Soviets, but also private business interests.

Kebbell joins the series as Miles, described as “a former offshore oil platform worker who pursues a new job opportunity on Mars.”

Kebbell is no stranger to Apple audiences, as he currently stars in the streamer’s psychological horror series “Servant,” which is prepping its fourth and final season. Kebbell is primarily known for his film roles, having starred in features like “Dead Man’s Shoes,” “RocknRolla,” “War Horse,” both “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes...

Warner Bros. Discovery has had a rough go of it recently. The newly-formed mega corporation’s decision to callously prune HBO Max’s servers of hours of content has led to mountains of bad PR and billions of dollars in market cap losses. Suffice it to say, a jam-packed list of new HBO Max releases for September 2022 would provide some welcome relief for the “House of the House of the Dragon.”

Unfortunately, HBO Max’s new releases this month are uncommonly light. It’s impossible to say whether this is the result of more Wbd meddling or simply some bad scheduling luck but either way it’s not going to make any executives’ seats less warm. There are only a handful of notable originals this month, led by season 2 of the Spanish language comedy Los Espookys on Sept. 16. That is joined by a pair of documentaries, Escape from Kabul on Sept.

Prime Video’s new reimagining of the 1989 classic Road House starring Jake Gyllenhaal is gearing up as it has set Billy Magnussen, Daniela Melchior, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Lukas Gage, Hannah Love Lanier, Travis Van Winkle, B.K. Cannon, Arturo Castro, Dominique Columbus, Beau Knapp and Bob Menery to join the cast. Doug Liman is directing from a script written by Anthony Bagarozzi & Charles Mondry. Joel Silver is producing for his company, Silver Pictures. JJ Hook, Alison Winter, and Aaron Auch will serve as executive producers.

“Road House is a homerun for us. Not only is it a nod to fans of the original, but it is also a big, fun, broad audience movie,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios. “We are thrilled to collaborate with Joel, Doug, and this great cast led by Jake Gyllenhaal, and for them to come together to reimagine the classic MGM film as an action-packed adventure for our global audience.

The Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels filmmaker has inked with WME.

In the wake of making his feature directorial debut in 1998 with that gangster film, Guy Ritchie made a fast name onscreen with his kinetic, whiplash style. While he continued on to make tentpole fare for the Hollywood studios, he’s continued to return to the genre which he’s made his name in.

Recently, Ritchie shot an untitled action-thriller, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, which STX sold to MGM and Amazon. His next theatrical release, STX’s Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre, which he wrote, directed and executive produced, reps another reteam for the filmmaker with Jason Statham. That collaboration began on Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and continued in such crime action pics as Snatch, Revolver and Wrath of Man.

Operation Fortune: Rise de guerre follows Statham as special agent Orson Fortune and his team of operatives as...

Veteran producer Joel Silver (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey’s Team Downey and Amazon Studios are partnering to develop a series of feature film and television projects based on Donald E. Westlake’s series of highly popular Parker crime fiction novels, written under the pseudonym Richard Stark.

The first project emerging from the deal will be the film Play Dirty, in which Downey Jr. (Marvel’s Avengers franchise) is set to star as Parker, a professional thief who approaches his job with a straightforward, no-nonsense work ethic. He’s a craftsman. He’s brutal, brilliant. He’s also deadly. He’s whatever it takes to get the money and get away clean. The Parker character was first introduced in 1962’s The Hunter from Pocket Books and featured in 23 other titles from Westlake, subsequently serving as the basis for such films as Parker with Jason Statham,...

Exclusive: MGM and Amazon have struck big deals for U.S. and international rights, respectively, to the upcoming Jake Gyllenhaal-Guy Ritchie untitled Afghan war movie, we can reveal.

Filming is due to get underway on January 24 in Alicante, Spain, with additional casting set to be revealed soon. Significant deals have also closed with local buyers in a handful of overseas markets with STX handling sales and facilitating much of the financing, which is now in place. In the $55M-budgeted action-thriller, Gyllenhaal will play Sgt. John Kinley, who is on his last tour of duty in Afghanistan when he is teamed with local interpreter Ahmed to survey the region. When their unit is ambushed on patrol, Kinley and Ahmed are the only survivors, and with enemy combatants in pursuit, Ahmed risks his life to carry an injured Kinley across miles of grueling terrain to safety. Back on U.S.

British actress Thandiwe Newton has been making a career tackling genre projects with roles like Maeve in HBO‘s “Westworld,” the female lead in John Woo‘s “Mission: Impossible 2,” “The Chronicles of Riddick,” Guy Ritchie‘s gangster comedy “RockNRolla,” “Interview with the Vampire,” and now reunites with “Westworld’s” Lisa Joy for the new feature, “Reminiscence.”

Read More: ‘Solo’: Thandiwe Newton Says Val Wasn’t Supposed To Die In The ‘Star Wars’ Spinoff & Calls The Death “A Big, Big Mistake”

Speaking with Lad Bible to promote the new sci-fi film, Thandiwe Newton revealed she had turned down a superhero project because they wanted her to play someone’s mother that just dies and expresses boredom towards most of these moneymaking franchises.

Continue reading Thandiwe Newton Turned Down A Mom Role In A Superhero Film & Says The Genre Mostly “Bores” Her at The Playlist.

Exclusive: The Avenue has acquired North American rights to The System, a newly announced film starring Tyrese Gibson (Fast & Furious franchise), Terrence Howard (Crash), Jeremy Piven (Entourage), and Lil Yachty (Long Shot).

The action-thriller picked up by Highland Film Group’s domestic distribution arm centers on a former marine (Gibson) who is recruited by authorities to go undercover in a notoriously dangerous prison, following a drug bust. After discovering an underground fight ring, he has to fight to stay alive, and to take down the corrupt system.

Dallas Jackson (Netflix’s Thriller) wrote and directed the film, which was shot in Jackson, Mississippi.

Gibson produced it with Bryan Lord (Willy’s Wonderland) and Petr Jakl (Best Sellers). The project’s EPs are Martin J. Barab, Matthew Helderman, Luke Taylor, Gardy Craig and Highland Film Group’s Arianne Fraser, Delphine Perrier, JJ Caruth and Caleb Ward.

“Bryan Lord and Dallas Jackson...

Even The Losers get lucky sometimes. Before the Dceu was formed to compete against the ever-expanding, cash cow that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the approach at Warner Bros. was far looser. With the booming business of comic book adaptations in full swing, the studio was throwing money at several eclectic comic book titles like Watchmen and Jonah Hex, trying to stay competitive and seemingly more adult than their rivals. Hence before leaving to create his own superhero project, Hancock, writer-director Peter Berg started penning an adaptation of DC/Vertigo’s The Losers, bringing in French director Sylvain White to helm the picture.

Produced by Joel Silver, The Losers centered on a team of elite, black-ops Special Forces operatives betrayed by their handler. Director White connected with the material immediately.

“What appealed to me about The Losers was that it wasn’t the typical superhero-with-superpowers thing,” White told MTV. “It...

The action star’s latest collaboration with Guy Ritchie is violent fun with a slow-burn plot, but the movie has a woman problem

Whether you think Guy Ritchie is commenting upon overblown masculinity or merely indulging in it, his twist-laden crime sprees tend to be adrenaline-fueled fun, and in that regard, “Wrath of Man” is no exception. Ritchie’s reunion with leading man Jason Statham delivers the scheming, the shooting, and the swearing that the director’s fans have come to expect, by the bucketload.

But even at his most dude-fixated, Ritchie has always wisely included at least one sharp and savvy female character, the smartest cookie at the sausage fest. This time out, the women tend to be ornamental or victimized (or both), leaving one to wonder if the film wouldn’t have been better off as an unfiltered testosterone-fest if the filmmakers couldn’t manage to provide one interesting woman.

Netflix has confirmed most of its upcoming content for July, so it’s time to take a look at what’s on the horizon. It’s a quiet-ish month for the streaming giant, but we assume it’ll only get quieter in the next part of the year as the industry shutdown continues to impact release schedules everywhere. Nonetheless, Netflix still has some intriguing projects to offer, for the time being.

July will see the return of The Umbrella Academy for its highly anticipated second season, but Netflix also has a few new gambles in the form of its Unsolved Mysteries and The Baby-Sitters Club reboots, along with a brand new spin on the Arthurian legend with its Lady of the Lake series, Cursed. Elsewhere, Charlize Theron stars as an immortal badass in comic book adaptation The Old Guard and we’ll take another trip into teen rom-com territory with...

In today’s film news roundup, “Waiting for the Barbarians,” “Don’t Tell a Soul” and “Daddy Issues” get distribution and the African American Film Critics Association is launching a virtual Strong Summer 2020 programming slate.

Acquisitions

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired North American rights to Ciro Guerra’s feature film “Waiting for the Barbarians,” starring Johnny Depp, Robert Pattinson, Mark Rylance, Gana Bayarsaikhan, and Greta Scacchi.

Goldwyn said the film was originally slated for a theatrical release, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it will be released on cable on-demand and digital platforms in August.

Rylance plays a magistrate in an isolated frontier settlement on the border of a large empire who looks forward to an easy retirement until the arrival of a colonel (portrayed by Depp), whose task it is to report on the activities of the “barbarians” and the security situation on the border. The colonel’s ruthless interrogations...

When was the last time you watched Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels? If you remember Guy Ritchie’s debut hitting American screens back in the spring of 1999, you might recall how familiar it felt — we’d already spent most of the decade watching smooth criminals in clever, chatty caper flicks. But this Cockney variation on postmodern pulp stood out among the many Cinema Tarantino pretenders of the day, threading in nods to mod U.K. classics (The Italian Job, Performance), vintage London gangster flicks (The Long Good Friday) and East End hard-men chic.

Director Guy Ritchie (Aladdin) returns to his adrenalized gangster based roots with The Gentleman. The feature centers on Mickey (Matthew McConaughey), an American expat who heads a money making marijuana empire in London. When rumors surface that he may be selling off his business, a plethora of predators attempt to muscle in on [...]

The post Matthew McConaughey Influenced By The “Eye For Detail” Behind ‘The Gentlemen’ appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.

It took Guy Ritchie a little over a decade to make the transition from self-styled auteur to journeyman, and his output was hardly worse off for the change. At the turn of the century, he announced himself as the swaggering enfant terrible of British genre cinema with the sharp Cockney crime pic “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,” though the law of diminishing returns set in fast: 2008’s “RocknRolla” was a tired gangster retread that still marked a step up from the Madonna folly “Swept Away” and the incomprehensible, Kabbalah-inflected “Revolver.”

A reset was called for; slick studio tentpole projects beckoned, ranging from a snazzy “Man from U.N.C.L.E.” revival to an impersonal but profitable turn in the Disney stable with “Aladdin.” It’s a second phase that has bought enough goodwill for Ritchie to don his tweed auteur flatcap once more. Enter “The Gentlemen,” a knockabout...