Paramount+ is gearing up for a new gangster series with none other than Tom Hardy and legendary British director Guy Ritchie at the helm.
Ritchie, known for his work on classics such as Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, as well as more recent hits such as The Gentlemen and its Netflix spin-off, will take the reins as director and executive producer.
Deadline reports that the as-yet-untitled series has begun production in London.
Formerly known as The Associate, the show will star Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren as Conrad and Maeve Harrigan, who lead one of London’s most formidable organized crime families.
Hardy is set to play Harry Da Souza, Harrigan’s volatile fixer, always on call to sort out their messes, the Mirror reports.
The series promises to be a gripping crime drama centered around “two warring families based in London whose businesses span the globe and the fiercely loyal ‘fixer’ tasked with protecting one of them at all costs.”
Alongside his starring role, Hardy will also serve as an executive producer with Ritchie, acclaimed playwright Jez Butterworth and film producer Kris Thykier, who is married to Strictly Come Dancing host Claudia Winkleman.
Chris McCarthy, Co-CEO of Paramount Global, expressed his enthusiasm for the project: “Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren are masters of their craft and we are honored to have them lead the cast of Guy Ritchie’s new global, original series.”
While Ritchie is known for his thrillers and feature films such as Sherlock Holmes and Aladdin, he has recently made a leap into the world of streaming television.
He produced and directed two episodes of The Gentlemen, the Netflix spin-off series of his 2019 film, which proved a huge hit for the streaming giant and has been renewed for a second season.
Ritchie also has two more films lined up; In the Gray with Henry Cavill and Jake Gyllenhaal, and Fountain of Youth with John Krasinski and Natalie Portman.
Since starting his film career in the late 1990s, he has become a mainstay of British cinema and is widely regarded as one of our foremost contemporary filmmakers.
MovieWeb included him in its list of the 24 greatest British directors of all time, writing: “(His first two films) were nothing short of iconic, with the former a hilariously engaging crime comedy that relied on dark humor and impressive lead performances, and the latter repeats these elements with a completely new setting and the incorporation of more international actors.
“Despite their slight differences, both films would dominate the box office, along with dazzling critics from around the world.”
While admitting that his more recent work has been “somewhat unbalanced”, many agreed that he was back on track with The Gentlemen and, hopefully, his thriller with Hardy will reach the same heights.
