Colin Firth will be taking on more wartime efforts with the Operation Mincemeat UK release date coming in early 2022 (see details below) following on from his success in 1917 and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It’ll be his second film with director John Madden, with the two previously working together on Shakespeare In Love back in 1998, so here’s everything you need to know about the film, including the age rating in our parents guide section, the story, cast and runtime estimate.
The plot is an adaptation of the real life mission, Operation Mincemeat, which was designed to hide the Allied invasion of Sicily in the summer of 1943. The idea was that the British intelligence would plant seemingly critical correspondences on a dead body and let it wash up in Spain on the assumption that it would only be a matter of time before it gets into the hands of the Germans.
The planning for the operation was inspired by the Trout memo, an earlier intelligence document which is assumed to have been written by Sir Ian Flemming of James Bond fame when he was Admiral John Godfrey’s assistant. The overarching point is that to fly fish a wily trout, it takes a lot of skill and misdirection, and as with the fish, the Nazi’s would need to be tackled with a lot of cunning if they were going to take the bait.
Cast
The Operation Mincemeat cast sees a lot of historically accurate roles with Colin Firth (Kingsman: The Golden Circle) leading the march as Captain Ewan Montague. He’s joined by the musician and actor Johnny Flynn (Beast), who plays Ian Flemming, Simon Russell Beale (Operation Finale) as Winston Churchill, the late, great Paul Ritter (Son of Rambo, Friday Night Dinner) as Bentley Purchase, Mark Gatiss (Christopher Robin) as Ivor Montagu and Jason Isaacs (Monster Family) as Admiral Godfrey.
The film also stars Kelly McDonald (T2 Trainspotting) as Jean Leslie, Matthew McFadyan (Frost/Nixon) as Charles Cholmondeley, and Penelope Wilton (Shaun of the Dead) as Hester Legget.
Operation Mincemeat UK release date
The film has had a number of reschedules recently, but at the moment the Operation Mincemeat UK release date is planned for Friday the 22nd April 2022, having been put back from the 7th January. It should come out in the US on the same date, but it may only get a limited release to begin with, depending on reviews and performance at the UK box office, because it’s currently down to stream on Netflix in the States.
While it was initially down for a relatively quiet weekend in January in the UK, it has now been moved to an equally unoccupied release in April. There are no other films slated to come out on the same weekend and its nearest competitor is The Phantom of the Open, which arrives a week earlier. It will then have until the 6th May to make the best of the spot before Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness hits the big screen.
The April release date means that it should go on to be available to buy on DVD, Blu-ray and digital in the UK around June 2022. Considering it is scheduled to arrive on Netflix in the US, we’re expecting it to go down a similar route for streaming in the UK at a later date, once Warner Bros. has released it in cinemas over here.
You can follow us on Twitter to see news and updates on upcoming films, and you can see more on the war film in the run up to the release with the official Warner Bros. Twitter page at https://twitter.com/warnerbros.
Age rating and parents guide
The Operation Mincemeat UK age rating won’t be finalised by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) until we get closer to the release date, however, we do have the trailer to go on for our parents guide. With the wartime setting and the nature of the plan, which involved a dead body washing up ashore, we’d say that the certificate should come in as either a 12, or if it picks up the tension like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy then maybe a 15.
However, the trailer presents the film in a more humorous light than 1917, for instance. It’s far from a full comedy, but the tone is slightly less suspenseful than your average war film. That being said, there are more dramatic sections of the trailer that feature the floating body and an assault on a burning beach at night, so that’s bound to affect the rating and needs to be taken into account from a parents guide point of view.
We’ll update you with more details on how old you need to be to watch the film as they get confirmed. You can also check out our movie news section to keep tabs on the latest upcoming film release dates, age rating and parents guide details, or visit the Film Nation Entertainment website at https://www.filmnation.com/.
Runtime
As with the certification, the Operation Mincemeat runtime won’t be confirmed until we get a little close to the release date. War films are usually around the 2 hour mark, which was the case for the likes of 1917, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Dunkurk, so it should be a similar case here.
