One week before Guy Ritchie's next film, The Covenant, opens in theaters, news of the Snatch filmmaker being sued over his 2020 film, The Gentlemen, starring Matthew McConaughey, has surfaced.

Variety's exclusive reports that actor-writer Mickey De Hara filed a lawsuit last month against Ritchie in the London High Court. The lawsuit claims that Ritchie had commissioned him to write a screenplay for a sequel to his 2008 film RocknRolla based on De Hara's “personal life experiences.” Variety's report notes that British newspapers claim De Hara was once convicted of possessing cocaine and marijuana “with an intent to supply.” De Hara faced jail time.

In 2018, De Hara turned in a script about a protagonist who runs a marijuana business to which Ritchie turned it down saying that “the time of the gangster movie is over.” This implied that the project was dead until January 2020 when The Gentlemen was released in the U.K. and U.S.

The Gentlemen was a return to form for Ritchie as he headed back into the gangster film world that followed Mickey (McConaughey), a gangster hoping to sell off his marijuana business and get out of the game. De Hara claims the film is a “substantial” reproduction of his script with its cast of characters, their characterizations, and “unique aspects of the plot” including the marijuana business owner and an aristocrat with a drug-addicted son.

In addition, the character of Coach (played by Colin Farrell), beats up a group of kids in a fast food joint in the film — including squirting vinegar in the eyes of one of them. This too was apparently taken directly from De Hara's screenplay down to the name of Coach.

After the film was released, De Hara claims to have reached out to Ritchie, pointing out the similarities, to which Ritchie said, “Mickey, I and my people have tried to contact you for some years now. There was no response. I am happy for us to sit down and have a chat.” De Hara denies that Ritchie or anyone involved attempted to get in contact with him. And in April 2020, he asked Ritchie for a writing credit ahead of the film's digital release but instead was offered a writing credit on a future project he'd have no other part in making.

“I have a feeling that might be too late Mickey,” Ritchie said in a text, according to the filings. “I’ll try, but what I can do is get you a credit on something in the future. Let me see what I can do. Honestly, we did try to get hold of you.”

Mickey De Hara's lawsuit is seeking “credit for his original work that was used in The Gentlemen without his consent and without his payment of the agreed remuneration” and an additional $250,000 (including a share of the film's profits).

Guy Ritchie has yet to file his defense to the lawsuit.

The Gentlemen was one of the last major studio films released before the pandemic and lockdown. The film came out on January 24, 2020, and was able to make $115 million globally and didn't have it nearly as bad as The Way Back or Onward which both opened a little over a week before lockdown on March 6. The film has a follow-up series coming from Netflix that has yet another star-studded cast including Theo James (The White Lotus), Kaya Scodelario (Crawl), Daniel Ings (I Hate Suzie), Joely Richardson (Lady Chatterley’s Lover), Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul), Peter Serafinowicz (The Tick), and Vinnie Jones (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels).