Every so often, a trailer succeeds in giving you absolutely everything you need to know about a film. Summary? Nah, I’m good: This movie is about Henry Cavill and a ragtag crew of murderous pals making funny faces and blowing things up while on a covert mission to defeat Nazis. And it’s directed by Guy Ritchie.
But there are, in fact, other delightful details about The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare that a person might wish to know, such as these: It co-stars a fantastic list of actors, including the large man who currently plays Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson); Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians); Eiza González (who you should really watch in Ambulance); Alex Pettyfer (Magic Mike); Babs Olusanmokun (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds); and no less than Westley himself, Cary Elwes.
What’s more, the film is—to some degree or another—based on a true story. As Deadline explains, “The true story covers UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s and Ian Fleming’s secret WWII combat organization. The clandestine squad’s unconventional and ‘ungentlemanly’ fighting techniques against the Nazis helped change the course of the war and gave birth to the modern Black Ops unit.”
Yes, that Ian Fleming. The movie’s source material is Damien Lewis’s book The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: How Churchill’s Secret Warriors Set Europe Ablaze and Gave Birth to Modern Black Ops; the screenplay is by Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson (co-writers on The Fighter), Arash Amel, and Ritchie. And action-movie mastermind Jerry Bruckheimer is among the producers.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is in theaters April 19th.