The movie inspired by Guy Ritchie that ended up being directed by Guy Ritchie
When it comes to British gangster movies, nobody is a bigger authority than Guy Ritchie. From his early efforts like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch to his more recent entry, Ritchie’s brand of fast-paced, snappy dialogue-driven crime flicks is an easily recognisable subdivision of UK cinema. Some are better than others, but there’s usually something enjoyable to be found in all of them.
Ritchie has been able to branch out, though. His two ‘Sherlock Holmes’ movies, starring Robert Downey Jr. as the legendary sleuth, are fantastic, and could be seen as the genesis point for the modern fascination with Arthur Conan Doyle’s greatest creation. Deviating from his most common formula hasn’t always worked; Swept Away, starring Ritchie’s then-wife Madonna, was completely flattened by critics. Even the director himself has spoken of his disdain for the project.
One of his most recent credits was on 2024’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Loosely based on a real-life unit active during World War II, the film follows a group of British soldiers who undertake a dangerous, unorthodox mission deep behind enemy lines. Despite featuring a cast including Henry Cavill, Rory Kinnear, and Cary Elwes – as well as Ritchie’s name on the poster – the movie bombed. However, the story behind its inception is still quite an interesting one.
Arash Amel, one of the film’s screenwriters, spoke to The Academy about his original plan for this gun-toting, rollicking adventure. “Believe it or not, my first pitch to Paramount was, ‘This has to be The Dirty Dozen meets Ocean’s Eleven, in the tone of Guy Ritchie.’ Way back in the beginning, those were my exact words,” he said. I had to then go and write the script and figure all of that out, but I always knew that there aren’t that many directors who can capture that swagger.”
Amel was working with legendary producer Jerry Bruckheimer on this idea, who clearly saw his pitch of a ‘Guy Ritchie-style movie’ and decided to go straight to the source. “Jerry gave it to Guy and I immediately got a call saying, ‘Guy’s read it, and he loves it, and he wants to do it,’” Amel continued. “Everything was in place for Guy to come in and do what he does amazingly well.”
Interestingly, early drafts of the script didn’t contain a key element of the story. “In the first pass of the script, I didn’t have Churchill, because I felt like Churchill was going to be very overpowering, and Gary Oldman had just done The Darkest Hour,” Amel admitted. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who played a huge role in the real-life unit this film is based on, wasn’t going to be in the movie at all, until another legendary figure intervened. “Jerry and I had a meeting with Ridley Scott, just to talk about it,” Amel revealed. “He read it, he was wanting to give some thoughts, and one of the key inputs was, ‘Put Churchill in there.’”
It might not have taken the box office by storm, but The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare ended up taking a winding journey that both started and ended with Guy Ritchie, with a small detour via Ridley Scott. The film industry is a fascinating place, and stories like this aren’t as rare as you’d think.
