Hugh Grant Joins Guy Ritchie’s ‘Toff Guys’ Gang

EXCLUSIVE: Hugh Grant is boarding Miramax’s Guy Ritchie-directed gangster feature Toff Guys. 

Written by Ritchie with Marn Davies and Ivan Atkinson, Toff Guys returns the British filmmaker back to his Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch roots. The pic explores the collision between old-money European wealth and the modern marijuana industrial complex with new gang entrants swarming.

Grant joins Matthew McConaughey, Kate Beckinsale and Crazy Rich Asians breakout Henry Golding who have already been announced. The Four Weddings and a Funeral Star will play Fletcher, a British gossip journalist with a reputation of going into people’s lives, and undoing them. Miramax closed a $30 million-plus world rights deal and committed to finance the pic in May ahead of the Cannes market.

The new studio under beIN Media Group Chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi and CEO Bill Block is on a roll this month with Halloween which they co-financed with Blumhouse and produced. The slasher sequel, made for around $15M, will ultimately close in on $200M at the global box office and instantaneously became the highest grossing pic in the 40-year old John Carpenter horror franchise. Miramax also had I, Tonya earlier this year which was nominated for three Oscars including best editing, best actress Margot Robbie, and best supporting actress Allison Janney, the latter who took home the Academy Award.

Recently Grant has won rave reviews for his turn as British Liberal Party Leader Jeremy Thorpe in the Amazon mini-series A Very English Scandal. Thorpe was accused of conspiracy to murder his gay ex-lover and forced to stand trial in 1979. Deadline Senior Editor Dominic Patten beamed in his review, “The Stephen Frears-directed and Russell T. Davies-penned series finds the expanse of Grant’s skills on display big time…Grant grimaces, growls and grandly takes this potential comedy of errors, which has already aired in the UK, beyond nonfiction farce to true tragedy with heartfelt candor over broken souls, a broken system, and a love that sadly could not and would speak its name.”

Grant starred earlier this year in StudioCanal/Warner Bros.’ Paddington 2 which made close to $227M worldwide. Grant won a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for his turn in Four Weddings and a Funeral. His films have racked up close to $3 billion at the global box office. Grant is repped by CAA.