'Five Eyes': Guy Ritchie And Jason Statham Reunite For A Spy Thriller

Director Guy Ritchie plucked Jason Statham from the world of modeling and gave him his first acting job in 1998's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. The two have reunited multiple times over the years – in 2000's Snatch, 2005's Revolver, and again in next year's Wrath of Man – and now the duo are getting together to make yet another new movie. Ritchie will direct Five Eyes, a spy thriller in which Statham will play the lead character...who happens to have a pretty spectacular name.

The Hollywood Reporter says that Ritchie will direct Five Eyes, in which Statham plays a guy named "Orson Fortune." Man, I'd forgotten how much I love a good ridiculous movie character name. Fortune is an MI6 guns-and-steel agent who is recruited by a global intelligence alliance called Five Eyes to track down and stop the sale of a deadly new weapons technology which threatens to disrupt the world order. Reluctantly paired with a CIA agent who's an expert in technology, Fortune sets off on a globe-trotting mission where he will have to use all of his charm, ingenuity, and stealth to track down and infiltrate a billionaire arms broker.

Personally, I can't wait for the scene where he says the line, "Fortune favors the bold" – although I can't decide if the one-liner would best be delivered right before killing the bad guy, or right before inevitably bedding the love interest. You know how these movies go.

The script hails from writers Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies, who wrote Ritchie's recent movie The Gentlemen as well as Wrath of Man (which used to have the much cooler title of Cash Truck). Ritchie provided revisions to their screenplay, and he'll produce this movie alongside Atkinson. Bill Block (2018's Halloween) is also producing for Miramax, the company that's fully financing the film, and STX Entertainment is handling distribution in the U.S., UK, and Ireland. It's not surprising that all these parties are involved, given that their most recent collaboration, The Gentlemen, made over $115 million worldwide on a $22 million budget. That film earned a bit of a mixed reception, but was generally seen as a mostly welcome return to Ritchie's crime capers of old. Here's hoping Ritchie's upcoming reunions with his old pal Statham will boost the quality of these muscular throwback films and fill a hole that isn't really being filled in the movie landscape these days.