Just by watching the film’s recently-released trailer, it seems like a pretty standard Ritchie movie. That’s not a bad thing — he’s a good director, especially when making crime flicks like “Operation Fortune” is shaping up to be. It also got mixed-to-positive reviews when it was released in international territories earlier this year. The question you might be asking yourself is, why did they essentially bury this movie for so long?
That can all be boiled down to one extremely unfortunate coincidence. According to a rumor published in the Evening Standard, the film was pulled from release because the character of Simmonds utilizes Ukrainian mafia members as his bodyguards and lackeys. While this hasn’t been officially confirmed by Lionsgate or other members of the production, it makes sense. The film’s original release date wound up coinciding with the major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, and since the war was still ongoing when it was rescheduled to March of 2022 (and is still waging on as of this writing), there seemingly was no good time for “Operation Fortune” to commence. There were rumors during STX Entertainment’s restructuring that it would be released through a streaming platform, but it sounds like those plans won’t be coming to fruition.
At least the cast and crew of this film can finally take a big breath, knowing that the work they put into this film will be honored, after all. “Operation Fortune: Ruse De Guerre” will arrive in theaters on March 3, 2023.