Theo James Goes Gangster in 'The Gentlemen'

You probably have never heard of Guy Richie's The Gentlemen, a film technically considered a 2019 release because it debuted in December at a film festival and got high marks. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Eddie Marsan, Colin Farrell, and Hugh Grant, it's a fun "the aristocracy secretly grows weed to support itself" high-society concept in the Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels British gangster genre film, However, its March 2020 release date in the U.S... Well, that didn't happen. 

Sadly, it's only a streaming rental because otherwise, I would recommend it. Instead, we will have to make do with Richie's spinoff project of the same name, greenlit in October 2020. Theo James, who is a long way from Sanditon, stars as the newly anointed Duke of Halstead; Eddie Horniman, who, as the eldest son, has inherited his father's sprawling grand estate upon his father's passing and all of his money problems... or so he thinks. Turns out his money problems aren't what he imagined, as the property is solvent, thanks to having joined the secret cannabis-growing empire.

The eight-hour series tracks Eddie's transformation from a would-be rich boy gangster into an actual drug lord kingpin, as Horniman discovers that he's actually quite good at this game....

Here's the series' logline: 

The Gentlemen sees Eddie Horniman unexpectedly inherit his father’s sizable country estate - only to discover it’s part of a clandestine cannabis empire. Moreover, many unsavory characters from Britain’s criminal underworld want a piece of the operation. Determined to extricate his family from their clutches, Eddie tries to play the gangsters at their own game. However, as he gets sucked into the world of criminality, he begins to find a taste for it.

James co-stars with Ray Winstone, who rose to fame making these kinda of films when he starred in 2000's Sexy Beast. (The fact that he is starring in the TV spinoff of The Gentlemen, a Guy Richie film he was not originally in, and not taking a role in Paramount+'s Sexy Beast, which is literally based on the film that made him famous... well, we'll let you do that math.) Winstone plays Bobby Glass, "a career criminal from the East End of London who founded an industrial cannabis empire."

James and Winstone co-star alongside Kaya Scodelario (The Pale Horse), who plays Susie Glass, Bobby’s effortlessly stylish and steely daughter who runs the day-to-day business of the empire. The series also stars Daniel Ings (I Hate Suzie), Joely Richardson (Lady Chatterley’s Lover), Vinnie Jones (Galavant), Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul), Chanel Cresswell (This is England), Max Beesley (Hijack), Jasmine Blackborow (Marie Antoinette), Harry Goodwins (In His Hands: The Emergence), Dar Salim (The Covenant), Pearce Quigley (Detectorists), Peter Serafinowicz (The Tick), and newcomers Ruby Sear and Michael Vu.

Ritchie directs the first two episodes and executive produces alongside co-writer Matthew Read, plus Marn Davies, Ivan Atkinson, Marc Helwig for Miramax TV, and Will Gould and Frith Tiplady for Moonage Pictures. The series producer is Hugh Warren. 

The Gentlemen will premiere with all eight episodes on Netflix in March 2024.