While currently at work on his latest Jason Statham-led spy thriller Five Eyes, Guy Ritchie has already found his next project in the form of a film adaptation of Damien Lewis’ World War II history novel Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare for Paramount Pictures, according to Deadline.
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The novel, published in 2016 by Quercus, explores the era of 1939 WWII when Britain was being beaten down by Germany in mainland Europe and saw Winston Churchill respond by electing to stop fighting under accepted rules of engagement and build a band of warriors who became the first secret operatives to strike behind enemy lines. Essentially Britain’s first black ops unit, members were recruited knowing they would likely not make it out alive but formed a close bond with the rest of their group and won numerous key victories against the Nazis.
Click here to purchase Lewis’ Sunday Times bestselling novel!
Paramount acquired the rights to the novel since 2015, ahead of its publishing and outbidding a number of other studios, and have landed the Aladdin and Sherlock Holmes filmmaker to write and direct the project, with previous writers attached to the project including Arash Amel (A Private War), Paul Tamasy (The Outpost) and Eric Johnson (The Finest Hours).
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Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is set to be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Chad Oman via the former’s Jerry Bruckheimer Films banner while Ivan Atkinson is set to executive produce and Paramount’s Senior VP of Production Vanessa Joyce overseeing the project for the studio.
(Photo Credit: Mike Marsland/WireImage)
