---

EXCLUSIVE: Amid simmering unease over the impact of the writers’ strike, the upcoming Cannes market is getting a shot in the arm with the arrival of Guy Ritchie’s next project, a big-budget untitled action movie which will star Henry Cavill (Man Of Steel), Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal (Spider-Man: Far From Home) and Eiza González (Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw).

Plot details and title are being kept (largely) under wraps but we hear the story, which is said to be laced with Ritchie’s trademark humor, will revolve around two extraction specialists who must plan an escape path for a high-level female negotiator. This will be one of — if not the — biggest-budget projects at the market with Black Bear International launching world sales today.

The movie will see Ritchie re-teaming with Cavill, Gyllenhaal and Gonzalez after recent collaborations. The new project comes hot on the heels of April’s U.S. release of critically well-received action film The Covenant, starring Gyllenhaal, and Ritchie has only just wrapped starry WWII movie The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare with Cavill and González among cast. Cavill also teamed with Sherlock Holmes and Aladdin director Ritchie on The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

The new project is due to begin filming in Spain this summer. Ritchie wrote the original screenplay, and will also produce alongside partner Ivan Atkinson, and Black Bear International’s John Friedberg, who also produced Ritchie’s last two movies. Jill Silfen negotiated the deal on behalf of Black Bear International.

Ritchie said: “There’s something special that happens when you collaborate with the same partners regularly: you build a shorthand and a trust that lets everybody do their best work. Jake, Henry and Eiza are all astonishingly talented, committed, and engaging actors. This is going to be an action-packed movie that is both intellectually stimulating and physically exhilarating.”

---

---

EXCLUSIVE: In a lucrative deal, Lionsgate has landed domestic distribution rights to Guy Ritchie’s (Sherlock Holmes) next project, which remains untitled, as principal photography wraps in Spain this week.

Lionsgate had previously picked up domestic rights to Ritchie’s upcoming World War II movie The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.

The new action film, whose plot is being kept under wraps, sees Ritchie reteaming with Jake Gyllenhaal (Spider-Man: Far From Home), who played the lead role in Ritchie’s recent war movie The Covenant, as well as Henry Cavill (Mission: Impossible – Fallout) and Eiza González (Baby Driver), both of whom star in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.

Ritchie produces the new movie alongside longtime producing partner Ivan Atkinson (The Covenant) and Black Bear’s John Friedberg (The Covenant); Black Bear handled worldwide sales on the film.

Joining the cast are veteran Spanish actor Carlos Bardem, known for movies including Assassin’s Creed and Goya’s Ghosts, and veteran U.S. actor Fisher Stevens, who most recently starred in HBO’s Succession and directed Netflix docuseries Beckham. The movie has a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement.

---