Operation Fortune Trailer Finally Announces Release Date

Movies

Before he helps out Vin Diesel’s “family,” Jason Statham will be returning to theaters on his own… or with April Ludgate and Iago, at least. Today, Lionsgate released a new trailer for Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, Guy Ritchie’s new spy movie that was once called Five Eyes, and we now have a release date for this languishing action flick: March 3, 2023. (No time like the present, guys.) The film finds superspy Orson Fortune and his partner Sarah Fidel recruiting a Hollywood star to infiltrate an arms dealer’s inner circle. Joining Statham are Aubrey Plaza, Josh Hartnett, Cary Elwes, and Hugh Grant. You can see the trailer for Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre below:

It’s a relief to see this movie finally get a release date. I’ve been looking forward to it since it was announced in 2020, and it was supposed to come out last year but was delayed. Apparently, the reasoning behind its shelving is that some of the bad guys are Ukrainian, and that might be offensive to Ukrainians, or at least to the people on Twitter who put Ukrainian flags in their screen names. The list of nationalities that can’t be used as villains is widening by the day, and I’ve been denied Jason Statham action because of it, which means that Jason Statham may have to single-handedly end the Russia-Ukraine war so we can all move on to the next thing we pretend to care about but don’t really understand.

But, on the bright side, Operation Fortune is coming soon – very soon, as in a little over two weeks. (It’s already had an international release, which is indicative of how phony this Ukrainian sensitivity really is.) And I’m looking forward to it; I love Statham, and I’m interested in seeing him paired up with Aubrey Plaza. The trailer indicates that she’ll be as sarcastic as we expect (not to pigeonhole her or anything), and I think that could be a good match for Statham’s gruff, masculine persona. I also like the setup of having a movie star go undercover as a spy; it reminds me a little of Team America. I always thought Josh Hartnett was a better actor than he was given credit for being, and his career never quite took off like it should have, so I’m happy when he turns up in something. And Guy Ritchie seems to enjoy casting Hugh Grant as bad guys all of a sudden, but it’s fun to see this new side of him. I’ll be keeping an eye out for tickets to go on sale.