Everything is coming up Alan Ritchson these days. That includes Guy Ritchie’s upcoming movie, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which co-stars Henry Cavill’s tongue and magnificent mustache in what appears to be Ritchie’s version of Inglourious Basterds. The film is also sort-of a real story, and also importantly, Ritchson’s guns will figure prominently alongside an ensemble cast of characters doing their best Nazi hunting.
It’s also easy, given Guy Ritchie’s apparent fixation with “Gentlemen,” to confuse this with an upcoming Netflix series which is — you guessed it — also directed by Guy Ritchie. Let’s talk about the difference between these two projects as well as the possible reason why Ritchson is wearing those tiny glasses in the below image.
Let’s dispense with the first order of business, which is to distinguish our current topic of conversation from the upcoming Netflix series The Gentlemen, which is Ritchie’s series adaptation (starring Theo James) of his 2019 film (about a weed empire that ends up being a surprise inheritance) starring Charlie Hunnam, Hugh Grant, Matthew McConaughey, and Colin Ferrell. This series began filming in late 2022 and is expected on the streamer sometime in 2024.
Whereas The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare will land in theaters and stars Henry Cavill having an absolute blast with a goon-ish spin on the real-life Gus March-Phillipps, who founded the British Army’s Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF), which eventually led to the modern-day Special Air Service (SAS). In this story, he pioneers an unorthodox secret military unit that shoots up Nazis. The story claims to portray “the first special forces mission in history,” and yes, this film is rooted in actual history with Ritchie co-writing the script based upon “recently declassified files of the British War Department” and “true events.”
Cavill returns to blockbuster action mode (Mission: Impossible — Fallout) after too much time wearing The Witcher wigs, and of course, he has already worked with Ritchie and knows the director’s particular cadence and drill. Naturally, the tongue is a special Nazi-killing touch (Aldo Raine would surely approve):
As for Ritchson, we can only guess that those glasses — while he portrays Danish soldier Anders Classen, who received the British Victoria Cross — are an attempt to pull him off the Reacher set for a brief interlude between seasons. Those muscles were obviously going nowhere, and you can’t hide ’em. And the tiny glasses (what a disguise!) appear to acknowledge the absurdity of casting Ritchson while knowing that everyone is thinking about Jack Reacher. His character seems to leave the gunplay to everyone else while he picks up a bow and the like (the better to flex).
Do you want a synopsis? Yes, of course:
THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE is an action-comedy that tells the story of the first-ever special forces organization formed during WWII by UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill and a small group of military officials including author Ian Fleming. The top-secret combat unit, composed of a motley crew of rogues and mavericks, goes on a daring mission against the Nazis using entirely unconventional and utterly “ungentlemanly” fighting techniques. Ultimately their audacious approach changed the course of the war and laid the foundation for the British SAS and modern Black Ops warfare.
This incredibly Guy Ritchie-directed movie arrives with Jerry “Blockbuster” Bruckheimer producing. The cast not only includes Cavill (along with his ungentlemanly swagger on display) but also Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettifer, Tig Schweiger (who’s a nice little Inglorious Basterds easter egg for Nazi hunting adventures), Hero Feinnes Tiffin, Cary Elwes, Henry Golding, Henrique Zaga, and Babs Olusamokun.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare arrives in theaters on April 19. This will be followed by Ritchie’s Gentlemen Netflix series, sometime in 2024.
This looks like so much fun. Give it to us.
