Director Guy Ritchie is famous for attracting A-list actors throughout his career, as he’s shown through his frequent collaborations with Jason Statham, compiling the star-studded cast of 2019’s The Gentlemen, and getting Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law to play Sherlock and Watson. The filmmaker’s next movie proved this again as it will see John Krasinski and Natalie Portman playing brother and sister. Plus, the adventure at the center of the film sounds like it will be a blast.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Guy Ritchie has assembled Krasinski and Portman for an upcoming Apple film called Fountain of Youth. The movie will reportedly revolve around estranged siblings who work together on a “global heist” to discover the legendary Fountain of Youth. Over the years, the mythological spring that allegedly restores one’s youth has been the subject of many films from Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides to Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain. This one looks to be a fun globetrotting adventure flick that has me excited already.
Apparently, both John Krasinski and Natalie Portman will be some kind of history buffs who follow their knowledge of the past to chase after the fountain’s promise of immortality.
Considering Krasinski and Portman are usually rather picky when it comes to what projects they get behind, there must have been something special about Fountain of Youth. The script was penned by James Vanderbilt, of the recent Scream films, Murder Mystery flicks and The Amazing Spider-Man movies, plus he wrote the screenplay for one of the best movies of the 2000s, Zodiac.
The news surrounding Guy Ritchie’s latest movie comes as the director recently wrapped work on The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, an action war film starring Henry Cavill, Jake Gyllenhaal and Eiza González. The project was recently added to the 2024 movie schedule for April 19 alongside The First Omen and Challengers.
While the release strategy has not been decided upon, the Fountain of Youth sounds like it could be the right movie to go to theaters before becoming available to stream with an AppleTV+ subscription, like other recent Apple movies like Killers of the Flower Moon and next month’s Argylle.
Guy Ritchie has been lining up movie after movie in recent years, considering he had two movies come out in 2023 between The Covenant and Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre. He’s also been attached to Disney’s Aladdin 2, after helming the billion-dollar box office smash and sharing hopes to return to Agrabah. He was also chosen to make the live-action Hercules in 2022, but we’ve yet to hear much regarding the movement of either Disney project.
I can’t wait to see what Ritchie does with Fountain of Youth, and what John Krasinski and Natalie Portman bring to the upcoming adventure!