The rollout of Guy Ritchie’s Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (formerly: Five Eyes) has been all over the shop. And that’s being polite about it.
The production was initially unveiled through whispers and buried remarks, only to be found by the 12 industry nerds who sift through every Indiewire or Deadline article; materialised out of nowhere with minimal marketing push and an extremely half-assed poster (see: below); before being pulled from its studio’s release schedule in a rather unceremonious fashion.
Later on, the culprit was revealed to be the world’s worst timing. The story’s original villains were Ukrainian war mongers, and given the not-so-negligible matter of Putin’s ongoing invasion, the suits behind the scenes (understandably) thought it was in bad taste. Whether any reshoots were undertaken is currently unclear.
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But now, after being put on ice for roughly a year, the Jason Statham-led spy action/comedy has a revised release date: January 21st of 2022, March 18 of 2022, January 12th of 2023 – straight to streaming over in the US, regular theatrical run internationally.
For those of you who need a refresher on what to expect, read on…
Suffice it to say, if you’re in Guy Ritchie’s good books, you’ll never be without a job. Off the back of Wrath of Man (formerly: Cash Truck), the director promptly reunited with Statham for this one.
“The truth is I wanted another alibi to give me a reason to work with Jason again because I enjoy collaborating with him so much,” Guy Ritchie told Entertainment Weekly, who has now cast the action star in a total of five films.
As per the official synopsis, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre is essentially Argo textured with what we can only assume will be layer upon layer of classic Ritchie-isms:
Super spy Orson Fortune (Jason Statham) and his team of top operatives recruit Hollywood's biggest movie star, Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett; another repeat Ritchie flick offender), to help them on an undercover mission to stop billionaire arms broker Greg Simmonds (Hugh Grant; also another repeat Ritchie flick offender) from selling a deadly new weapons technology that threatens to disrupt the world order.
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Richie added: “You have to look up the meaning of ‘Ruse de Guerre… it’s too ironic a premise to ignore.”
“Somehow only the French have managed to capture the meaning within a term – ‘the accepted unorthodox approach to war’ – which is really what our film is about.”
Jason Statham, Hugh Grant, and Josh Hartnett are joined onscreen by the delightfully deadpan Parks & Recreation alum and current White Lotus star Aubrey Plaza, in addition to UK grime artist Bugzy Malone.
The screenplay, on the other hand, has been penned by Ritchie himself alongside Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies, all of whom previously served as the scribes for The Gentlemen and Wrath of Man (see what I mean about staying in G-Man’s good books?).
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Hopefully, the headlining duo of Ritchie and Statham manages to successfully (re)capture the magic we experienced in Lock, Stock, & Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, and Revolver, with less of the non-magic delivered in the decidedly one-dimensional Wrath of Man.
Once again, Guy Ritchie’s Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre starring Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, Josh Hartnett, and Hugh Grant hits international theatres in the new year: January 12th of 2023.
Check out the trailer above.
Side note: this is still the worst movie poster we’ve seen in a long time, absolutely atrocious.
