10 Awesome Behind the Scenes Facts About Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen

One of the most popular films of the year has been Guy Ritchie’s crime comedy The Gentlemen.

The film is director Ritchie’s return to the kind of British gangster films that made him famous and that he does so well. He is also backed by an incredible cast, including Matthew McConaughey, Colin Farrell, and Hugh Grant. The fun, gritty, and energetic movie was a real crowd-pleaser and it seems like it was a blast to make as well. Fans loved this film, but there are behind-the-scenes facts about it they might not know.

10 Legalization Of Marijuana

A big part of the film deals with Mickey Pearson’s illegal marijuana business. Though Mickey is an American, he has set up this business in the UK and has thrived for several years. But now he is looking to turn towards more legitimate business.

Guy Ritchie has said that he doesn’t have a strong opinion one way or another about whether or not marijuana is legalized in the UK. However, the line about it never being legalized so long as there is a queen on the throne attracted him to the idea of old values clashing with new progress.

9 Return To Roots

Many people saw this film as a return of the classic Guy Ritchie who had burst onto the cinema scene with witty and fun crime films like Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, and Snatch. Since then, he moved onto bigger films like Sherlock Holmes and Aladdin.

According to Ritchie, the movie wasn’t a conscious decision to step back from the big-budget films as he had written the script more than a decade earlier. However, he did acknowledge that it was a return to his roots and he was interested in seeing how this type of story has evolved.

8 Television Series

Television has evolved in a way that the biggest stars and biggest filmmakers are moving to the small screen and getting the chance to tell big and ambitious stories. Despite his success on the big screen, Ritchie decided he would make a similar move.

The Gentlemen was initially conceived as a series and presented it to studios in that way. Reportedly, the series would have focused more on the Raymond character. However, the studios decided they wanted it to be a movie first and take a look at a possible TV show later.

7 Hugh Grant

Among the star-studded cast of this film, Hugh Grant really stands out with his eccentric character and fun performance. Grant plays tabloid journalist Fletcher who attempts to blackmail Mickey by relaying everything he known to Mickey’s right-hand man Ray (Charlie Hunnam).

Grant filmed his scenes in just five days with 40 pages of dialogue to cover. Grant had made a cheat sheet to help him learn all the lines, but the night before filming, his car was broken into and the cheat sheet was stolen.

6 The Original Lead

Charlie Hunnam’s Ray is an integral part of the action in the movie and this project allowed Hunnam and Ritchie to team up once again after working on King Arthur together. As it turns out, Ritchie already had this idea on his mind when they met for the first time.

When the script was being prepped as a television show, Hunnam was eyed as the lead. However, when it was turned into a movie, Matthew McConaughey took the lead role and Hunnam became a supporting actor. Funny enough, McConaughey didn’t realize this until they were doing press for the film.

5 Beer And Pubs

While Ritchie usually finds some subtle cameo for himself in his films, this time around, he let his personal brands pop up throughout the film.

When one of the characters is walking into a bar at one point in the film, there is a beer truck with a logo for Gritchie Brewing Company and Mickey is seen drinking the same beer later in the film. This is a real brewing company owned by Ritchie. Likewise, a glass in the bar features the logo Lord of the Land which is a London pub Ritchie owns with footballer David Beckham.

4 Costume Design

Though Ritchie’s films are more known for their fast-paced and witty dialogue, some fans might be surprised to learn that Ritchie puts a lot of focus on the costumes. Ritchie considers himself to be a lover of clothes and enjoys shaping his characters out of the outfits.

For this film, he took several different approaches to what the characters wear. Mickey wears posh clothes as a way of attempting to fit in with high-class British people. Fletcher has a red color scheme to hint at his nefariousness. Ritchie even took Charlie Hunnam clothes shopping to prepare for his role.

3 Writing On The Fly

Given how sharp and unique Ritchie’s scripts are, one might assume that he takes a very strict approach in insisting the script is followed exactly. In reality, his style of filmmaking is very loose and in the moment.

Ritchie does not do table reads for his films but rather holds extensive rehearsals on the day. If the rehearsals show that the dialogue is not working or something better comes up, Ritchie will rewrite the scene on the fly. Michelle Dockery claimed she usually received pages for her scenes moments before filming.

2 The Long Good Friday

Though not a direct remake, many fans have pointed out the striking similarities this film shares with the classic 1980 British gangster film The Long Good Friday. Both films focus on a successful gangster whose plans of going into legitimate business are threatened by a number of attacks against his empire.

Ritchie seems to understand the connection as he has a scene near the end with mirrors the iconic backseat scene in The Long Good Friday. In both movies, the gangster gets into his car only for a gunman to turn around and for him to be driven off presumably to be executed.

1 Movie Within A Movie

One of the more entertaining aspects of the film is the framing of Fletcher’s movie pitch to Ray. Fletcher lays out the plot of the movie as if it is a movie he is writing himself. He does this to show he has information on Mickey which he can expose.

At the end of the film, Fletcher is seen meeting with a movie executive and pitching the same movie. He presents the script which is title “Bush.” That happens to be one of the working titles for this film. Also, behind Fletcher is a poster for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. which Ritchie also directed.

About The Author

Colin McCormick
(2030 Articles Published)

Colin McCormick is a Senior Writer with Screen Rant and has been a proud member of the team since 2019. In addition to his work as Screen Rant, Colin is also a writer of News, Feature and Review pieces at Game Rant. Colin has had a long passion and obsession with movies going back to the first time he saw The Lion King in theaters. Along with movies, Colin stays up-to-date on the latest must-see TV shows. While he loves to find interesting projects in any kind of genre, he has a special movie of crime stories that are infused with a little dark humor much like the work of his favorite author, Elmore Leonard.

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