1968–1997: Early life and career beginnings Ritchie was born in
Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Both of Ritchie's parents remarried. His father's second marriage was to
Shireen Ritchie, Baroness Ritchie of Brompton, a former model and later
Conservative politician and
life peer. Between 1973 and 1980, Ritchie's mother was married to
Sir Michael Leighton, 11th Baronet of
Loton Park. As a divorcée, she is styled as Amber, Lady Leighton. Ritchie is
dyslexic, and attended
Windlesham House School in
West Sussex and
Stanbridge Earls School in
Hampshire. He was expelled from school at the age of 15. He has claimed that drug use was the reason for expulsion, although Ritchie's father said he was "cutting class and entertaining a girl in his room".
1998–2002: Breakthrough After working on a short film,
The Hard Case (1995), in 1998, Ritchie met
Matthew Vaughn, who had been working in Los Angeles and expressed interest in producing Ritchie's directorial debut,
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). It took 15 months to secure financial backing.
Trudie Styler served as an executive producer—she said "I've always liked bad-boy movies". The production of comedy
heist film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was completed in about eight months. Starring
Nick Moran,
Jason Statham,
Jason Flemyng and
Dexter Fletcher, the film exposed them to worldwide audiences, and launched the acting career of former footballer
Vinnie Jones. It was released in the United Kingdom on 28 August 1998 to critical and commercial success, with
Janet Maslin of
The New York Times praising Ritchie's "brash, ebullient direction" and "punchy little flourishes that load this English gangster film". The feature earned $28.1 million at the worldwide box office. At the 1999
British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs),
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was nominated for three awards:
Outstanding British Film,
Best Editing and
Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer for Vaughn. The film won a BAFTA for Film of the Year. In response to the film's success, Ritchie created a spin-off television series called
Lock, Stock.... in 2000. Ritchie's next film was
Snatch (2000), another crime-comedy about a group of criminals searching for a stolen diamond which starred an ensemble cast including
Benicio del Toro,
Dennis Farina, Flemyng, Jones,
Brad Pitt,
Rade Šerbedžija and Statham. Similar to
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, the film depicted events from different characters' perspectives; a
narrative device which he would use in later films.
Snatch was released on 23 August 2000 to a commercial success at the box office, grossing more than $83 million worldwide.
Mick LaSalle, writing for
San Francisco Chronicle, was impressed with Ritchie's directing and "sequences that discharge with energy", but felt the writing could have been better. Film critic
Roger Ebert describes Ritchie as a "zany, high-energy director" but felt the film's plot "doesn't build and it doesn't arrive anywhere". In 2001, Ritchie directed a music video for "
What It Feels Like for a Girl", a song performed by
Madonna, to whom Ritchie was married at the time. In the video, she commits criminal and violent acts towards men; music channels
MTV and
VH1 banned the video from their rotation, opting to play it only once on the release date. Ritchie directed a short film starring Madonna and
Clive Owen, titled
Star for season one of
The Hire, a 2001 online series to promote
BMW automobiles. Ritchie's next film, starring Madonna and
Adriano Giannini, was
Swept Away (2002), a remake of
Lina Wertmüller's 1974 Italian film of the
same name. It is a romantic comedy about a wealthy socialite who is shipwrecked on a deserted island with a Communist sailor. The film was a critical and commercial failure, with an average rating of 5% on film
review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Almar Haflidason of the
BBC was critical of the lead actors, writing, "[Madonna] has neither good comedic sense nor any warmth [...] as for Giannini, he spends the first half of the movie endlessly complaining like some old fishwife". The feature won five awards at the
2002 Golden Raspberry Awards for
Worst Picture,
Worst Actress,
Worst Screen Couple,
Worst Remake or Sequel and
Worst Director. In 2002, Ritchie conceived a prank show titled
Swag, for
Channel 5 in the United Kingdom.
2003–2015: Critical disappointments and Sherlock Holmes Ritchie's next heist film
Revolver (2005) starred Statham,
Ray Liotta,
Vincent Pastore, and
André Benjamin. The story is about gambler Jake Green (Statham) who is released from prison and seeks revenge on those who stole his money. Filming was completed in late 2004 and the film premiered at the 2005
Toronto International Film Festival.
Revolver was released in the United Kingdom on 22 September 2005, but it was critically panned and a commercial failure. Simon Guerrier of
FilmFocus gave it one out of five stars, calling it, "tedious, humourless, pretentious and nasty".
Adrian Hennigan from the BBC wrote, "the cheeky charm has been replaced by plodding pretentiousness in a film that's illuminated by great action set-pieces and some powerful performances, but not redeemed". Ritchie responded to the criticism by stating, "I don't think anything went wrong with
Revolver. By its very nature it's an esoteric movie. It's not designed for the masses". The film was budgeted at $27 million but earned $7.1 million at the worldwide box office. In 2007,
Revolver was re-edited and released for the United States. In 2008, Ritchie directed
RocknRolla, for which he also wrote the screenplay. It stars
Gerard Butler,
Tom Wilkinson,
Thandiwe Newton,
Mark Strong,
Idris Elba,
Tom Hardy, and
Toby Kebbell.
RocknRolla was released on 5 September 2008 in the United Kingdom, reaching number one at the UK box office in its first week of release. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 60% rating, stating, "Mixed reviews for Guy Ritchie's return to his London-based cockney wideboy gangster movie roots, but most agree, it's a step in the right direction following two major turkeys". In that same year, Ritchie directed a television commercial for
Nike called "Take It To The Next Level". The commercial includes appearances from
Cristiano Ronaldo,
Cesc Fàbregas,
Ronaldinho,
Wayne Rooney, and
Ruud van Nistelrooy. Ritchie's next directorial effort was
Sherlock Holmes (2009), starring
Robert Downey Jr. and
Jude Law. The film was released on 25 and 26 December 2009 in the United States and United Kingdom. It was a box-office hit, taking more than $520 million worldwide, and garnered mixed to favourable reviews from critics and general viewers. It received multiple accolades, including two
Academy Award nominations for
Best Original Score and
Best Art Direction, and Downey won a
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. In 2011, Ritchie directed the sequel
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. It was released on 16 December and was an even greater commercial success, grossing more than $545 million worldwide.
A. O. Scott of
The New York Times criticized Ritchie for "taking liberties" with the characters, and wrote that both films depict "a smoky, overcast Victorian world, infuses it with an air of jocular, hairy laddishness and stages a lot of fights in fussy and tiresome slow motion". In 2012, Ritchie produced a trailer for the video game
Call of Duty: Black Ops II. In 2013, he directed a commercial for
H&M featuring
David Beckham. A year later, he directed a commercial for whisky brand
Haig, which also stars Beckham. He made a return to film in 2015 with
The Man From U.N.C.L.E., a remake of the
1960s spy series. Ritchie and
Lionel Wigram wrote the screenplay about a
CIA agent and a
KGB agent who work together to stop a criminal organisation from constructing a nuclear weapon.
Henry Cavill and
Armie Hammer played the lead roles. Principal photography commenced in 2013 in London and Italy, with rewrites to the script during filming. It was released on 14 August 2015 by
Warner Bros. to a mixed critical reception.
Glenn Kenny on
RogerEbert.com writes that it "is only intermittently engaging and amusing, and those portions of the movie that succeed are also frustrating." However, he praised
Hugh Grant's performance which "saves the movie".
2016–present: Aladdin and return to crime films In January 2014, Warner Bros. hired Ritchie to direct the first of six films in a franchise, fantasy adventure
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017) with
Charlie Hunnam portraying
King Arthur. The feature was released in 2D and
3D on 12 May 2017 in the United States, and a week later in the United Kingdom. Despite high expectations from the studio, it received mixed reviews and was a box-office failure, causing large financial losses for Warner Bros. and
Village Roadshow Pictures, and leading to the cancellation of the subsequent sequels. In August 2017, Ritchie received the
Raindance Auteur Award for his contributions to the
British film industry. Next, Ritchie directed
Disney's
live-action adaptation of
Aladdin (2019), based on the 1992 animated film of the
same name. The plot follows
Aladdin, a street urchin, as he falls in love with
Princess Jasmine, befriends a
Genie, and battles the wicked
Jafar. Released on 24 May 2019 in the United States, the film was a commercial success despite mixed reviews;
Aladdin earned more than $1 billion worldwide, becoming one of the
highest-grossing films in 2019, and the 34th
highest-grossing film of all-time during its theatrical run. Writing for the
Chicago Sun-Times,
Richard Roeper gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, praising
Will Smith,
Naomi Scott, and
Mena Massoud's performances. On
Metacritic,
Aladdin has a
weighted average score of 53 out of 100 based on 50 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews", and on Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 57% based on 372 reviews with an average rating of 5.88/10. In 2020, Ritchie returned to crime comedy with
The Gentlemen. The story is about an American expat who tries to sell his marijuana business, which triggers a chain reaction response from various criminals. Released on 1 January in the United Kingdom, and a few weeks later in other countries, the film was generally well received. Anton Bitel of
Sight & Sound wrote that it "returns to the sense and sensibilities of his earliest features". Film critic
James Berardinelli gave the film out of four stars, writing, "
The Gentlemen takes Ritchie back to his roots" although "the screenplay is too clever by half, with some of the quirkiness being awkward and intrusive." On Rotten Tomatoes, the film gained an approval rating of 74% based on 260 reviews, and earned $115 million worldwide. In October 2020, it was announced that Ritchie was developing a
spin-off television series, which was eventually acquired by
Netflix; the series was released on Netflix on 7 March 2024. Ritchie next directed the action thriller
Wrath of Man, a remake of the 2004 film
Cash Truck, reuniting with Statham. It was released in the United States on 7 May 2021. It was initially set for theatrical release in the United Kingdom by
Lionsgate UK, but was instead released straight to streaming on
Amazon Prime Video on 10 December 2021. Ritchie followed up
Wrath of Man with the spy thriller
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, again starring Statham. It was scheduled for release in cinemas on 18 March 2022, but was pulled from the schedule a month prior without an explanation; it was eventually released in the United States on 3 March 2023, by
Lionsgate. Ritchie next filmed the war drama
The Covenant, starring
Jake Gyllenhaal,
Dar Salim,
Antony Starr and
Emily Beecham, in February 2022 in
Alicante,
Spain. The film was released in the United States on 21 April 2023. In June 2022, it was announced that Ritchie had signed on to direct a live-action film adaptation of Disney's
Hercules. In February 2021, Ritchie agreed to direct and write the
World War II film
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, based on the book by
Damien Lewis, for producer
Jerry Bruckheimer and
Paramount Pictures. In October 2022,
Henry Cavill and
Eiza González were cast in the lead roles, with Paramount no longer involved. The film was released in theatres in the United States on 19 April 2024 by
Lionsgate. In May 2023, weeks after production wrapped on
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, it was announced Ritchie would next direct the film
In the Grey (untitled at the time), starring Cavill, Gyllenhaal and González, set to shoot in Spain in the summer of 2023. It concluded production in October 2023, with
Lionsgate acquiring domestic distribution rights and
Black Bear UK releasing in the United Kingdom. The film was set to be released in theatres in the United States on 17 January 2025, but was pulled from the release schedule in November 2024 as post-production was not yet finished. Lionsgate would ultimately relinquish distribution rights, with Black Bear Pictures set to release the film themselves on April 10, 2026. On 6 July 2023, it was announced Ritchie would executive produce the ESPN documentary series
Gracie, to be directed by
Chris Fuller. On 11 January 2024, it was announced Ritchie would direct the action adventure film
Fountain of Youth, for
Skydance Media and
Apple Studios, with
Natalie Portman,
John Krasinski and
Domhnall Gleeson set to star and production began in February 2024. The film was released on
Apple TV+ on 23 May 2025. On 28 February 2024, it was announced that Ritchie would serve as director and executive producer alongside
Top Boy creator
Ronan Bennett on the
Ray Donovan spin-off series
The Donovans for the streaming service
Paramount+. By October 9, the project had been retitled
The Associates and had been reworked into a standalone series, with
Tom Hardy,
Helen Mirren, and
Pierce Brosnan in final negotiations to star in the project, now called
MobLand. On 13 May, it was announced Ritchie would write and direct the film
Wife & Dog; in November, it was announced the project would star
Benedict Cumberbatch,
Rosamund Pike, and
Anthony Hopkins, with production expected to begin in February 2025. On 29 May 2024, it was announced that Ritchie would serve as executive producer and director on the
Amazon Prime Video television series
Young Sherlock, based on the
Young Sherlock Holmes series of
young adult novels by
Andy Lane. On 30 April 2025 it was announced that Ritchie would reunite with Gyllenhaal to direct the sequel to
Road House, with
Will Beall writing the screenplay; however, in July Ritchie exited the film. On 29 October, it was announced that Ritchie and Statham would reunite on the action thriller
Viva La Madness, based on the 2011 novel by
J. J. Connolly. == Filmmaking ==