Having stayed out of each other’s orbit for over fifteen years, longtime friends and close collaborators Jason Statham and Guy Ritchie re-teamed in a big way by shooting two action thrillers back-to-back, and the second of those projects has landed a release date now that the project formerly known as Five Eyes has been locked in for a January 21st, 2022 debut.
Statham played major roles in Ritchie’s first two features Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, before they teamed up once again for 2005’s Revolver, but then they both went their separate ways. Drawn back together eventually, the gritty and violent Wrath of Man hit theaters at the beginning of May, and performed well by the standards of the COVID-19 era by earning almost $100 million at the box office, putting it right in line with many of the leading man’s other star vehicles.
It may have recently become untitled once more for unknown reasons, but the former Five Eyes promises to be an altogether glossier affair than Wrath of Man, with Jason Statham heading up the cast as awesomely-named MI6 operative Orson Fortune, who finds himself recruited by the titular international intelligence organization comprised of the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Partnered with Aubrey Plaza’s CIA agent, the mismatched duo head off on a globetrotting adventure to stop deadly weapons technology from falling into the wrong hands. Josh Hartnett, Cary Elwes and Hugh Grant are also on board, and if Ritchie can replicate the hard-boiled action of Wrath of Man and meld it to the stylish thrills of his big screen version of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., then it promises to be a fun time at the movies.
