The Gentlemen

The Gentlemen is a 2019 action comedy film written, directed and produced by Guy Ritchie, who developed the story along with Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies. The film stars Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Eddie Marsan, Colin Farrell, and Hugh Grant. It follows an American cannabis wholesaler in England who is looking to sell his business, setting off a chain of blackmail and schemes to undermine him. The Gentlemen premiered at the Curzon Mayfair Cinema on December 3, 2019, and was released theatrically in the United Kingdom on January 1, 2020, by Entertainment Film Distributors, and in the United States on January 24, 2020, by STXfilms. It received generally positive reviews from critics and was also a commercial success, grossing $115 million worldwide against its $22 million budget. A spin-off television series is in development at Netflix with Theo James starring in a lead role, alongside Vinnie Jones, Kaya Scodelario, Giancarlo Esposito, Daniel Ings, Joely Richardson and Peter Serafinowicz as the rest of the cast. Plot Big Dave, editor of the Daily Print tabloid, is snubbed by cannabis baron Mickey Pearson at a party and hires private detective Fletcher to investigate Pearson's links to Lord Pressfield. Pressfield, a duke, has a heroin-addicted daughter named Laura. Fletcher offers to sell his findings (typed up as a screenplay entitled Bush) to Pearson's right-hand man, Raymond, for £20 million. Born into poverty in the U.S., Pearson won a scholarship to Oxford, where he began selling marijuana before dropping out and building his criminal empire. He now plans to sell his business to American billionaire Matthew Berger for £400m and retire peacefully with his wife, Rosalind. Pearson shows Berger one of the labs where he grows cannabis under the estates of aristocratic landlords who need cash for the upkeep of their stately homes. Pearson is later approached by Dry Eye, an underboss for Chinese gangster Lord George. Dry Eye offers to buy out Pearson's business, but he refuses. Pearson's lab is raided by amateur MMA fighters and aspiring YouTubers "The Toddlers" who overpower the guards, steal marijuana and upload a rap video of their caper online. The fighters' horrified trainer, "Coach", orders them to delete the video.