Tag Archives: guy ritchie

“The Covenant” Trailer, Featurettes, Clip, Images and Poster

Set in war-torn Afghanistan in 2018, Guy Richie directs The Covenant. The film follows U.S. Army Special Forces Sergeant John Kinley, played by Gyllenhaal. Kinley leads an elite unit tasked with finding Taliban munitions. “He has been deployed numerous times and has a tremendous amount of experience. He has relied on many different Afghan interpreters and has found himself in many different situations,” says Gyllenhaal. “His unit is constantly under threat and in very dangerous situations, and at the beginning of the movie, he seems to be striking out over and over. He’s going through a lot of red tape and is struggling to find any munition sites.”

Dar Salim (left) as Ahmed and Jake Gyllenhaal (right) as Sgt. John Kinley in THE COVENANT, directed by Guy Ritchie, a Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film. Credit: Christopher Raphael / Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures © 2023 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

On a mission with a new interpreter, Ahmed, Dar Salim, after an I.E.D. kills his regular interpreter. Kinley’s unit is all but wiped out by Taliban fighters when they raid an abandoned mine to house explosives.

Only Kinley and Ahmed manage to escape the attack, the pair stranded in Taliban territory with dozens of armed men after them. Ahmed carried John, who had been shot and seriously wounded, to safety through the desert and over a mountain.

But that’s only half the battle.

The Taliban forced Ahmed and his family into hiding, putting a heavy price on his head as Kinley returned home to the U.S.

Feeling an overwhelming sense of obligation to get Ahmed the visas the U.S. government promised his family, Kinley finds himself mired in bureaucracy and red tape. With his wife’s blessing, he returns to Afghanistan to find Ahmed and his family and bring them back to the U.S.

Guy Ritchie also directed Sherlock Holmes and its sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, the live-action adaptation of Disney’s Aladdin, had always wanted to make a war film. “It’s probably my favorite genre of movies, but we couldn’t find a story that appealed for a long time,” he says.  

Ironically, while developing another war movie, Ritchie watched several documentaries about the conflict, and one about interpreters and what they go through struck a chord. “I’d heard various anecdotes about Afghanistan that all sounded, in equal measure, horrifying and inspiring,” says Ritchie. “That was the genesis of the idea that you could see humanity in this traumatized environment, and it still managed to express itself. And this was an amalgam of the different stories, documentaries, anecdotes that I was aware of. And, obviously, the story of one man’s selflessness for another was what I found inspiring about the premise.”

(L to R) Dar Salim as Ahmed, Jason Wong as Joshua “JJ Jung”, Jake Gyllenhaal as Sgt. John Kinley, Christian Ochoa as Eduardo “Chow Chow” Lopez, and Rhys Yates as Tom “Tom Cat” Hancock, a Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film. Credit: Christopher Raphael / Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures © 2023 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

“He thought it was an important story to tell and thought he could tell it through his lens,” says producer John Friedberg, “so he came up with this idea.” Gyllenhaal’s character in  The Covenant is on his last tour of duty, trying to make a difference in Afghanistan but also desperate to get home to his wife and family in Santa Clarita, CA. “He represents the boots on the ground, the practical reality of the disparity between how we think things work at an administrative level and how they work at a practical level,” says Ritchie. “He is a good, old-fashioned classical, decent, brave soldier who’s loyal to his country and loyal to his men.” 

“What I loved about John Kinley is he’s a good man,” says Gyllenhaal. “Over the past number of years, I’ve tended to move towards characters people would define as ‘complex’ in how they walk the line between good and bad. I don’t know if I fully believe in that. I think we are all very complex, very fascinating human beings put in many different trying circumstances. To me, John Kinley is a character who, through those trials, pulls out morality and humanity, despite himself.”

Disney’s “Aladdin” Poster and Trailers

Directed by Guy Ritchie, Aladdin is the live-action retelling of the 1992 Disney classic movie. Will Smith plays the Genie this time and Billy Magnussen plays Prince Anders.  The teaser trailer is just that a teaser not telling us anything we don’t already know. It’s a remake.

The Blu-ray, DVD, and streaming of the movie are coming our way.  Now, you can watch the movie again or if you haven’t seen it, you get your chance to watch it as many times as you like at home. 

The second trailer proves to be a whole new world for Aladdin. Following the animated version of yesteryear, we see something spectacular and full of wonder.

“King Arthur” Trailer

King Arthur has Guy Ritchie written all over it with the choppy shots and hard rock music.  After viewing the trailer, I am not sure of the storyline with a bold fantasy and gothic stroke.

Ritchie brings an edge to the story in his own dynamic style to the epic fantasy action-adventure. We’ve all heard or read the story growing up. Starring Charlie Hunnam in the title role, the film is an iconoclastic take on the classic Excalibur myth, tracing Arthur’s journey from the streets to the throne.

Jude Law is in the movie as well and knows Ritchie well from their Sherlock movies.  I hope the next trailer share more of the storyline.