If you like your crime TV shows with a side helping of cockney slang and cheeky chappies, a new in development Netflix project may be right up your alley, guv’.
Netflix is in negotiations to greenlight a new TV show based on Guy Ritchie’s 2019 movie The Gentlemen, according to Deadline.
A pilot script has already been co-written by the British director, responsible for smash hits such as Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, alongside Matthew Read, with Ritchie lined up to direct the first two episodes and executive produce the series, should it get picked up.
The series would continue in the universe laid out by The Gentlemen film, which saw expat Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) try to offload his giant marijuana business in London and make a quick buck in the process. It was a star-studded movie, which also featured Colin Farrell, Hugh Grant, Henry Golding, Charlie Hunnam and Jeremy Strong. The Gentlemen did relatively well at the box office despite a mid-pandemic release, making $115 million against an estimated $22 million budget.
The Guy Ritchie TV universe
If Netflix does indeed pick up the show, this won’t be the first time Guy Ritchie’s films have been developed into TV shows.
The Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels TV show (Lock, Stock…) is something of a lost gem, running from May to July 2000 in the UK on Channel 4, and starred Ralph Brown with guest appearances from The Hobbit’s Martin Freeman and Game of Thrones’ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. It’s quite hard to come by now, outside the second hand DVD market. Another of Ritchie’s movies, Snatch, was turned into a two-season TV show by the streaming service Crackle, starring Harry Potter’s Rupert Grint – but it failed to grab the attention of critics, nor audiences.
Netflix has a long history of pulling in viewers with crime-based content, from documentaries like Making a Murderer to Tiger King, and dramas like Mindhunter and Ozark.
There’s definitely a gap in its catalogue for a more light-hearted take on the criminal underworld, something that Ritchie’s films have long led the pack with. But as the earlier adaptations have proven, there’s not been sure-fire success in reworking Ritchie’s films for TV. That Ritchie himself is more closely involved with The Gentlemen’s proposed spin-off show does offer more hope however.
