Lionsgate Lands Domestic On Guy Ritchie’s WWII Pic ‘Ministry’; Prime Video Splashes On Key Int’l Markets For Pic From Jerry Bruckheimer & Black Bear As Filming Begins

2019’s “The Gentlemen,” he’d have the usually dapper Hugh Grant play a sleazy journalist who refers to England only as “Angleterre” in an East End accent, and in 2021’s “Wrath of Man” he showcased frequent collaborator Jason Statham’s ability to switch from hilarious to killing machine.With this director, we’re never so much watching an espionage or crime movie as enjoying another off-the-rails Guy Ritchie attraction. That is, until “Operation Fortune,” the co-writer and director’s most uninspired movie in a minute. Lazily bopping around to exotic locales like Cannes, France, Antalya, Turkey, and Doha, Qatar, it’s a generic collage of mega-yachts, luxe hotels, fancy parties, disguised identities and tame fights that add up to a big nothing.Worry not about your blood pressure at “Ruse de guerre.” One chase scene in sunny Antalya, with actor Max Beesley on a vespa, is downright soothing.

What’s next for Paul Feig after directing “The School For Good And Evil” last year? It’s “Grand Death Lotto,” an action-comedy for Prime Video with a pretty dark premise. In the near future, California starts a Grand Lottery to help with its economic challenges, albeit with a catch: if anyone kills the winner before sundown, they get to collect the massive multi-billion dollar prize.

All good things come to an end, and so does “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” The Prime Video show’s fifth and final season arrives on the streamer next month.

When a movie gets tangled up in all kinds of financial problems, delayed for over a year, played out internationally, sent straight to streaming in Canada, and then finally getting the green light to open in the U.S. via a new distributor and thrown into theaters with virtually no notice or time to mount a marketing campaign, you have to think there must be something very wrong here.

When it comes to the genre playgrounds he loves so much, is Guy Ritchie better off being himself or playing along? His brash, bad-lad calling cards (“Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,” “Snatch”) were never terribly original, but their style-to-burn derivativeness had spirit. His Hollywood larks (“Sherlock Holmes,” “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”) never felt honest but the occasional glimpse of a bruiser’s cockiness made for colorful upgrades in the IP machinery.After Ritchie’s return to leaner (but never in the dialogue) roots with the comically shaggy, seedy gangster wingding “The Gentlemen,” and reteaming with his best contribution to cinema — Jason Statham — for the brackish vengeance puddle “Wrath of Man,” the British filmmaker is once again aiming for sleek and starry heights with the spy-driven action comedy “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre.”Statham is the “Fortune” of the title, first name Orson, an elite for-hire operative with clever ideas and expensive tastes, hired by intelligence agency rep Nathan (Cary Elwes) to determine who’s interested in a stolen package rumored to be worth $10 billion on the open market.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic 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” (yes, the one with Madonna), 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 trapped himself on a hamster wheel of trying too hard. I’ve liked a few of his films. But I’ve never loved one.

For years now, we’ve been seeing reports of movement on another sequel to Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes” film franchise. But with all the talk of development, we have yet to see anything official that would suggest that Robert Downey, Jr.

Old friends and one-time lovers Elaine (Brittany O’Grady from Season One of “The White Lotus”) and Craig (Nat Wolff) are workaholic employees at a rising game company headed by a divisive tech kid named Sang (Brian Yoon). They make those mobile games to which we’re all woefully addicted, killing brain cells to the rhythm of microtransactions that make people like Sang billionaires.

Scots drama The Rig is returning for a second series, it has been confirmed.

All is fair in love and war and, um, MMA. That’s the gist of “Perfect Addiction,” an upcoming romantic thriller on Amazon Prime Video.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International One of the hottest packages at the EFM has been taken off the table for international. Sources tell Variety that Prime Video has snapped up all international rights, excluding the U.S., to Justin Kurzel’s “The Order,” which stars Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult in a story about the titular white supremacist organization that operated in the 1980s. The project is penned by Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated writer Zach Baylin (“King Richard”), who based the screenplay on Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt’s book “The Silent Brotherhood.” Published in 1989, the book details the activities of the radical-right hate group The Order, which was one of the most sinister organizations to emerge in America since the Ku Klux Klan.

As the Berlin International Film Festival gets underway, so do big purchases on the European Film Market for future movie projects. And Deadline has the scoop on the first big deal at the Berlinale.  Amazon Prime Video has snatched up the international rights to “The Bluff,” a Caribbean action-survival movie with Zoe Saldaña and the Russo Bros.

EXCLUSIVE: Prime Video’s Hitchcockian thriller Holland, Michigan continues to round out its cast with the addition of Rachel Sennott (Bodies Bodies Bodies), Lennon Parham (Minx), Isaac Krasner (Power Book III: Raising Kanan) and Jeff Pope (Interview with the Vampire).

EXCLUSIVE: A hot package has just dropped late in the day at the EFM and has cooked up the first big deal on the ground in Berlin.

Idris Elba has made it clear that he will not be playing James Bond. Elba brought up the persistent discussions about him taking over as Ian Fleming’s famed British spy, while he spoke Tuesday to the World Government Summit in Dubai. When he was asked about his upcoming film based on the British series "Luther," Elba took himself out of the running to play 007.

Actor Idris Elba says he’s going to stick with being the tormented detective John Luther — not James Bond.

Miramax TV is bolstering its executive ranks with the addition of David R. Shraga as SVP and Head of Business & Legal Affairs for the studio’s Global Television operations. Shraga will report to Head of Global TV Marc Helwig, and is responsible for all domestic and international co-production relationships, above the line deal making, licensing, and distribution agreements.  

Lionsgate is set as the distributor for the action-comedy Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, helmed for Miramax by Guy Ritchie. The film starring Jason Statham (F9), Hugh Grant (Glass Onion), Aubrey Plaza (The White Lotus), Josh Hartnett (Lucky Number Slevin), Cary Elwes (Rebel Moon) and Bugzy Malone (The Gentlemen) will be released in the U.S. on March 3. 

Originally anticipated to be released a year ago, Guy Ritchie’s “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre” has been stuck on the shelf for a while now thanks to the dissolution of its studio, STX Entertainment. That left the film completed but without a distributor.

Lionsgate announced on Monday that it has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to Guy Ritchie’s action comedy “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre,” which stars Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza and Hugh Grant.