English filmmaker Guy Ritchie was sued for $250,000 by actor and screenwriter Mickey De Hara, who claims that the film “Gentlemen: Classy Criminals,” starring Matthew McConaughey, is very similar to a script he presented to him years before.
According to the specialized American site Variety, the news was known in the last few hours but the lawsuit was filed in March in London.
According to that complaint, Richie had asked De Hara to write a sequel to “RocknRolla” (2008) based on his life experiences in the world of drugs, a situation for which British media detailed that De Hara had even been sentenced to prison for possession of cocaine and marijuana for the purpose of commercialization.
Always according to De Hara’s story, in 2018 he delivered a script to Ritchie about a protagonist named Mickey like him who runs a marijuana business, but that the filmmaker told him that “the time for gangster movies had passed” and that therefore the project would not be developed.
Almost two years later, Ritchie premiered “The Gentlemen” (original name for “Los caballeros…”) and De Hara noted that it was a “substantial” reproduction of his script.
For the screenwriter, the film not only repeats his look at the fact that McConaughey played a gangster who runs a marijuana empire, but also supposedly copies numerous characters, their characterizations and “specific aspects of the plot.”
For example, he claims that the character in the film called Coach played by Colin Farrell, who manages a group of fighters known as “The Toddlers” (“The little children”), repeats his proposal of a man named Coach who leads a group of thugs nicknamed “The Baby Squad.”
De Hara said that after the film had a wide release in January 2020, he wrote to Ritchie to point out the similarity of the two projects and that the director replied: “Mickey, myself and my people have been trying to contact each other for several years. There was no answer. I’ll be happy to get together to chat.”
Of course, De Hara denies that anyone tried to speak to him before the film’s release.
The plaintiff even asked Ritchie months later to add a writing credit for the digital release on platforms, but the director told him it was “not possible” and was instead offering him a credit on a future project.
In his complaint, De Hara goes even further back in time and claims that he first worked with Ritchie on “Snatch. Pigs and Diamonds ”(2000) and that he even co-wrote“ RocknRolla ”, although in the latter’s file they only gave him credit as“ associate producer ”.
Specifically, the plaintiff requests that he be awarded recognition “for his original work that was used in ‘Los caballeros’ without his consent or payment of an agreed remuneration.” He is also asking for $250,000, which includes a portion of the film’s profits.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
