The Ronin has learned that cinematographer Ed Wild, who recently worked with director Guy Ritchie on his action thriller The Covenant, is expected to be lensing his World War II film The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Production is currently underway in Turkey with multiple locations expected to be used throughout filming.
Wild’s other credits include the recent Halo series, Black Mirror, and the British crime thriller Welcome To The Punch. The latter had a cast that featured James McAvoy, Mark Strong, Andrea Riseborough, Peter Mullan, Jason Flemyng, Daniel Kaluuya, and David Morrissey.
Ministry has assembled quite the cast as it consists of Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Henrique Zaga, Henry Golding, Alex Pettyfer, Cary Elwes, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusanmokun, and Til Schweiger. Ritchie was able to get mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer involved too, he is recently coming off the billion-dollar hit Top Gun: Maverick.
Of course, the film is based on the true story the top secret WWII combat organization formed by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Ian Fleming (long before his James Bond novels). The commandos’ unconventional and brutal fighting techniques against the Nazis helped changed the course of the war and gave birth to the modern Black Ops unit. Using the novel by war correspondent Damien Lewis as template, the script was penned by Ritchie, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, and Arash Amel.
Lionsgate nabbed the US distribution rights earlier this month and is expected to release it sometime in 2024 with Amazon Prime landing a heap of international rights, including Canada. There are already early plans for the film to launch into a full-blown franchise and could spawn subsequent sequels. However, it’s unclear if we’ll see the same cast lineup in those potential follow-ups but might be a good idea to secure Cavill early on.
Ritchie’s other upcoming projects he’s attached to include the Aladdin sequel for Disney along with their live-action musical version of Hercules.
You can watch the trailer Ritchie’s The Covenant below to get an idea of what Wild will be bringing to the WWII actioner.
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