It’s a movie bromance come full circle. Jason Statham and Guy Ritchie both broke through with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and then Snatch. Now after 20 years (yes, really), they’re reuniting twice in quick succession. Following up their upcoming action movie Wrath of Man, the pair will team up for a new espionage thriller called Five Eyes.
According to Deadline, Five Eyes will see Statham following up Lock, Stock’s ‘Bacon’, Snatch’s ‘Turkish’ and Wrath of Man’s ‘H’ with another awesome-silly character name. This time he plays Orson Fortune, an MI6 agent who is recruited by global espionage network ‘Five Eyes’ and charged with stopping a cargo of deadly next-gen weapons and a billionaire arms broker called Greg Simmonds. His partner on the mission is a CIA tech wiz called Sarah Fidel. Expect cheeky patter. Expect odd-couple chemistry. Expect the Stath to say ‘fack’ a lot.
Ritchie’s most recent film, The Gentleman, isn’t our favourite movie of the year to date but the Londoner definitely seems to have relocated his golden touch since King Arthur: Legend of the Sword flopped badly in 2017. Aladdin was a huge hit and The Gentleman repeated the trick, albeit on a smaller scale.
Five Eyes is penned by The Gentleman screenwriters Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies, which may give an idea of the sort of tone to expect. It starts filming in Europe next month.
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