Guy Ritchie Being Sued For Stealing His Best Movie’s Story
The era of gangster movies may be over, according to director Guy Ritchie, but a lawsuit against him has just begun. Mickey de Hara, who is a writer and a friend of Guy Ritchie’s, is filing a lawsuit against the director for allegedly stealing his story for the 2019 film The Gentlemen, according to Deadline.
Mickey de Hara is suing Guy Ritchie alleging that the director hired him for a RocknRolla sequel, before canceling it and making The Gentlemen instead.
Originally, the script for The Gentlemen was supposed to be a sequel to Guy Ritchie’s 2008 film RocknRolla. The latter movie starred Gerard Butler and Idris Elba as small-time London gangsters who get caught up with the Russian mob.
Guy Ritchie hired Mickey de Hara to help him write a sequel to RocknRolla, paying him £25,000 ($31,900) to share “anecdotes” and “act as a sounding board.” The director then opted to forego the sequel to RocknRolla because he felt that the era of gangster films was over. Instead, he supposedly took the plot points from the script and combined them with real events from de Hara’s life to create the crime comedy The Gentlemen.
The Gentlemen stars Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Jeremy Strong, and Colin Farrell, among other A-list actors. As Matthew McConaughey’s character, Mickey Pearson tries to sell off his marijuana empire, it causes all sorts of bribery and deception throughout London. It certainly has a similar feel to RocknRolla, but that is to be expected when it is written and directed by the same person.
The lawsuit alleges that Guy Ritchie took parks of Mickey de Hara’s own life and made them plot points in The Gentlemen.
Mickey de Hara filed his lawsuit against Guy Richie several months ago, pointing out that The Gentlemen has similar plot points to his life and the sequel he helped write for RocknRolla. Earlier this week, Guy Ritchie submitted a filing to London’s High Court denying that the idea for The Gentlemen was stolen from de Hara. In the meantime, the two will try to negotiate and settle things without going to court.
This is all emerging shortly before The Gentlemen TV series comes to Netflix by the end of this year or in early 2024. The new show will follow Eddie Halstead (played by Theo James), who inherits his father’s estate that sits on top of Mickey Pearson’s weed empire. It will star Kaya Scodelario, Vinnie Jones, and Joely Richardson.
Guy Ritchie is expanding the universe of The Gentlemen with an upcoming television series starring Theo James and Vinnie Jones.
Guy Ritchie is producing the new TV series with his production company Toff Guy Films, and he will direct the first two episodes.
In addition to The Gentlemen TV show, Guy Ritchie is also working on a few other projects, including writing and directing The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare and an untitled action movie. The director is best known for his kinetic action movies that feature British dark humor and lots of jump shots, often sitting somewhere between a gangster movie and a martial arts film. Some of his most popular movies so far have been Snatch, Sherlock Holmes, and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
While we wait for the dispute between Guy Ritchie and Mickey de Hara to resolve, we hope that it does not impact the new TV series The Gentlemen, which looks to be an entertaining show with a lot of promise.
