As Guy Ritchie’s weird, live-action Aladdin remake hovers ominously on the horizon, the English filmmaker is returning to his roots for an ensemble action film in the vein of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. Toff Guys, as it is so perfectly named, was already shaping up to be a star-studded affair when we reported on it earlier this month, with Matthew McConaughey, Kate Beckinsale, Hugh Grant, and Henry Golding having signed on. Now, The Hollywood Reporter is here with more casting news, as well as some enticing plot details.
Colin Farrell, who’s spent the last few years getting strange as hell with Yorgos Lanthimos, has officially signed on to play a character named Coach who (cracks knuckles) trains MMA brawlers. Also of note is the casting of Jeremy Strong—who delivered one of the year’s best turns on HBO’s Succession—as a character IMDB names as “Cannabis Kingpin Mathew,” which, yes, that is good. THR also reports that Beckinsale has left the project, and has been replaced by Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery.
Dockery, it appears, will play the wife of McConaughey’s character, who, after building a weed empire, wants out of the business. Golding, so sweet and charming in Crazy Rich Asians, will here flex a different muscle as a Vietnamese gangster. And, as we previously reported, Grant will play a sleazy journalist with oodles of blackmail in his back pocket. Farrell might put him in a headlock, who knows.
Production is already underway, and we’re still waiting for that Vinnie Jones casting announcement.
7 Comments
I’m beginning to suspect Guy Ritchie is compensating for something…
The collapse of the British Empire?
I’m still not sure of the plot. I mean, why would Oklahoma billionaires risk everything getting into the drug business in England? But mostly I don’t care. I adore Lock Stock, Snatch and Rocknrolla so if this is a return for Ritchie to that style, I’m all for it. Still needs more Jason Statham.
This sounds good, I pretty much trust Colin Farrell in just about any role. He even did well in True Detective 2, bless his heart.
I’ve been reading a bunch of Withnail & I trivia just now and skimmed through the first part of the article, so when I got to “Grant will play a sleazy journalist with oodles of blackmail in his back pocket” I was thinking, “oh, REG will be perfect for that role!” (sniff) guess Hugh Grant’s alright too…
Colin Farrell has quietly become one of the more interesting actors out there at the minute so this is probably a good thing.
I’m still kinda pissed that Fantastic Beasts exchanged him for Johnny Depp.