Longtime collaborators Jason Statham and Guy Ritchie are continuing their partnership with a new movie. The upcoming crime drama will mark their sixth film together.
According to an exclusive published by Variety, the two will be working together once more on a film titled Viva La Madness. The project is an adaptation of a novel by J.J. Connolly. It will be directed by Ritchie and star Statham.
The plot of the movie is still unknown, but its source material, a novel of the same name, follows the story of a mysterious drug dealer in London who goes by the name X. The crime-filled book was published in 2011 and is the sequel to Connolly’s novel Layer Cake, which was published in 2000.
A movie adaptation of the first novel in the series came out in 2004. However, the upcoming Viva La Madness is allegedly being released as its own entity that is completely unrelated to Layer Cake or anything Connolly has written. The first film stayed pretty true to its source material. It revolved around a cocaine dealer who was tasked with completing one last drug deal and finding a gangster’s daughter who had been kidnapped before he retired.
Production for the project will officially begin in January 2026. Statham is currently the only actor confirmed to be in the film at the time of this article’s publication. Ritchie is listed as the writer and director for Viva La Madness. The movie’s producers consist of Ritchie and Ivan Atkinson (Toff Guy Films), Statham (Punch Palace), Thomas Benski (Lumina Studios), and John Friedberg (Black Bear).
The adaptation of Layer Cake, starring Daniel Craig, was directed by Matthew Vaughn. He was also one of the producers of Statham and Ritchie’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. Apparently, a sequel to the film had been in progress for over ten years. According to reports, the two filmmakers have been discussing Viva La Madness since 2013.
- Birthdate
-
July 26, 1967
- Birthplace
-
Shirebrook, Derbyshire, England, UK
- Birthdate
-
September 10, 1968
- Birthplace
-
Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England
- Professions
-
Director, Producer, Screenwriter
- Height
-
5 feet 10 inches