iconic British director’s new series with Tom Hardy gets major update | TV & Radio | Showbiz & TV
Paramount+ has officially started filming a new gangster series with Tom Hardy and renowned British director Guy Ritchie leading the project.
Ritchie, famed for his work on Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, The Gentlemen and its Netflix spin-off, will serve as director and executive producer.
As reported by Deadline, production for the yet-to-be-named series has kicked off in London.
Previously titled The Associate, the show will also star Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren from The Thursday Murder Club as Conrad and Maeve Harrigan, who head one of London’s most influential crime families.
Hardy is set to play Harry Da Souza, the unpredictable fixer for the Harrigans, always on call to resolve their issues, reports the Mirror.
The official synopsis teases an intense crime drama revolving around “two warring families based in London whose enterprises stretch all corners of the globe and the fiercely loyal ‘fixer’ charged with protecting one of them at all costs.”
In addition to his role, Hardy will also executive produce the series alongside Ritchie, award-winning playwright Jez Butterworth and film producer Kris Thykier, who is married to Strictly Come Dancing host Claudia Winkleman.
Chris McCarthy, Co-CEO of Paramount Global, expressed his excitement about the cast in a statement: “Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren are masters at their craft and we are honoured to have them lead the cast for Guy Ritchie’s new global, original series.”
While Ritchie is renowned for his full-length thrillers and blockbusters such as Sherlock Holmes and Aladdin, he has recently found significant success in the realm of streaming TV.
He was the producer and director of two episodes of The Gentlemen, a Netflix spin-off series of his 2019 film, which turned out to be a massive hit for the streaming giant and has been renewed for a second season.
Ritchie also has two more films lined up; In the Grey featuring Henry Cavill and Jake Gyllenhaal, and Fountain of Youth starring John Krasinski and Natalie Portman.
Since launching his film career in the late 1990s, he has become a mainstay of British cinema and is widely regarded as one of our finest contemporary filmmakers.
MovieWeb included him on their list of the 24 best British directors of all time, stating: “[His first two films] were nothing short of iconic, with the former being a hilariously engaging crime comedy that relied on dark humour and impressive lead performances, and the latter repeating these elements with a brand-new setting and the incorporation of more international actors.
“Despite their small differences, both films would dominate the box office, along with dazzling critics from around the world.”
Although they concede his more recent work has been “somewhat imbalanced”, many agreed he was back on track with The Gentlemen and, hopefully, his Hardy-starring thriller will reach the same heights.
