Reporting For Duty
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Categories
'Layer Cake' sequel 'Viva La Madness' to star Jason Statham not Daniel Craig
Samuel001
Moderator
Jason Statham and his manager and producing partner Steve Chasman have acquired rights to the J.J. Connolly novel Viva La Madness. That is Connolly’s follow-up novel to Layer Cake. Just as he did with the the Matthew Vaughn-directed film that starred Daniel Craig, Connolly again is turning his novel into a script. Connolly never names his chief protagonist anti-hero, but Statham will play the same nameless character we last saw trying to survive a gunshot wound in Layer Cake. It took Connolly more than a decade to follow that tale. Here, his protagonist is looking for a beach to land on in retirement, but instead he gets involved with trans-Atlantic drug deals, money laundering, high-tech electronic fraud, London lowlifes and Venezuelan drug cartels.
Statham and Chasman will test the idea that a protagonist can play the same character in different movies, the way that everyone from from Mel Gibson to Lee Marvin, Jim Brown, Robert Duvall and even Statham played the Parker character from the Donald E. Westlake novels. Anything that gets Statham back in British crime caper mode like his showcase roles in the Guy Ritchie movies Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch sounds good to me. Connolly just scripted the heist feature H for Ritchie and partner Lionel Wigram.
Viva La Madness is the second film for Statham and Chasman under the SJ Pictures banner. They recently wrapped the Simon West-directed Heat, which William Goldman adapted his novel, with Statham starring with Sofia Vergara, Milo Ventimiglia and Stanley Tucci. Chasman separately has his production shingle Current Entertainment, which made Parker, The Bank Job, The Transporter films and Kiss of the Dragon.
Statham also wrapped The Expendables 3 and is shooting Fast & Furious 7. He next stars with James Franco and Kate Bosworth in Homefront. Statham is agented by CAA. UK-based Luke Speed of the Marjacq Agency repped the book and made Connolly’s writing deal.
http://www.deadline.com/2013/11/jason-statham-eyes-jj-connollys-layer-cake-followup-viva-la-madness
The novels were released in 2000 and 2012 and it looks like the films will have the same time span, 2004 and 2016.
Why not bring back Daniel though? I'm sure you would have a much better chance of a success that way.
The author said this on the matter last year:
Layer Cake did Daniel Craig a lot of good. He’s gone on to mega-stardom.
It’s funny but when Layer Cake, the book, first came out people suggested, joked, that the character was a criminal James Bond. It was good casting Daniel. I’d like to claim it was my idea but it wasn’t. I think Layer Cake was the tipping point for him – he was known and respected in that business but after Layer Cake came out, people, the Bond people, saw what he could do. He makes a good Bond – Daniel looks like he could have a proper brawl, you know, kick someone in the head. It had started to get a bit camp. He made it credible again.
If there was a film of Viva la Madness would Daniel Craig do it?
Absolutely no idea but he’s a very busy man these days. I’d love him to do it and that’s not my decision to make. He delivered last time… so why not.
Will there be a film?
It’s very early stages. If writing a book, making a film, and getting it out to three or four hundred multiplex cinemas in the UK was a football season, we’d have only played two games so far – they’d be thirty-six to go, and a hard slog through winter. In some respects writing the book is the easy part. You have to be patient. I’d love it to happen. Some writers bitch about having their work adapted but my experience was a good one. It was a laugh going to work and I never thought I’d say that. My hunch is that, yes, there will be a movie at some point.
http://sabotagetimes.com/people/j-j-connolly-interviewed-viva-la-madness-is-better-than-layer-cake/
Statham and Chasman will test the idea that a protagonist can play the same character in different movies, the way that everyone from from Mel Gibson to Lee Marvin, Jim Brown, Robert Duvall and even Statham played the Parker character from the Donald E. Westlake novels. Anything that gets Statham back in British crime caper mode like his showcase roles in the Guy Ritchie movies Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch sounds good to me. Connolly just scripted the heist feature H for Ritchie and partner Lionel Wigram.
Viva La Madness is the second film for Statham and Chasman under the SJ Pictures banner. They recently wrapped the Simon West-directed Heat, which William Goldman adapted his novel, with Statham starring with Sofia Vergara, Milo Ventimiglia and Stanley Tucci. Chasman separately has his production shingle Current Entertainment, which made Parker, The Bank Job, The Transporter films and Kiss of the Dragon.
Statham also wrapped The Expendables 3 and is shooting Fast & Furious 7. He next stars with James Franco and Kate Bosworth in Homefront. Statham is agented by CAA. UK-based Luke Speed of the Marjacq Agency repped the book and made Connolly’s writing deal.
http://www.deadline.com/2013/11/jason-statham-eyes-jj-connollys-layer-cake-followup-viva-la-madness
The novels were released in 2000 and 2012 and it looks like the films will have the same time span, 2004 and 2016.
Why not bring back Daniel though? I'm sure you would have a much better chance of a success that way.
The author said this on the matter last year:
Layer Cake did Daniel Craig a lot of good. He’s gone on to mega-stardom.
It’s funny but when Layer Cake, the book, first came out people suggested, joked, that the character was a criminal James Bond. It was good casting Daniel. I’d like to claim it was my idea but it wasn’t. I think Layer Cake was the tipping point for him – he was known and respected in that business but after Layer Cake came out, people, the Bond people, saw what he could do. He makes a good Bond – Daniel looks like he could have a proper brawl, you know, kick someone in the head. It had started to get a bit camp. He made it credible again.
If there was a film of Viva la Madness would Daniel Craig do it?
Absolutely no idea but he’s a very busy man these days. I’d love him to do it and that’s not my decision to make. He delivered last time… so why not.
Will there be a film?
It’s very early stages. If writing a book, making a film, and getting it out to three or four hundred multiplex cinemas in the UK was a football season, we’d have only played two games so far – they’d be thirty-six to go, and a hard slog through winter. In some respects writing the book is the easy part. You have to be patient. I’d love it to happen. Some writers bitch about having their work adapted but my experience was a good one. It was a laugh going to work and I never thought I’d say that. My hunch is that, yes, there will be a movie at some point.
http://sabotagetimes.com/people/j-j-connolly-interviewed-viva-la-madness-is-better-than-layer-cake/
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
I like Jason Statham a lot. The Bank Job is my personal favorite film of his. If this is well done, he should do fine in the role. Many actors take over a character that was first started by another actor. No, it won't be the same as with Daniel Craig, but it could be quite good. I do hope so.
Either way, I don't think another Layer Cake release is really necessary. The first (and so far only) film release is / was good enough without need for any more adventures. If they do go ahead with this (and they will) it's only good that Craig is not in the part once again, but then you feel, maybe he should return after all, as he featured in the original
Both books are said to be as good as either other and if so, I have no problem with another film. It's not as if they are making a film out of thin air. There are much worse ideas out there.
Before everyone starts slagging him off you should watch Hummingbird. Proved he's actually a decent actor as well as a good action hero/hardman type.
"Redemption" and "Hummingbird" is the same movie. Hummingbird is the US Title.
Ahh, okay, I didn't know that. Perhaps I read about 'Hummingbird' a while back before it hit DVD, and then 'Redemption' before it came out on Redbox and whatnot.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Statham, it's just that after waiting so long for a follow-up it hurts to hear that Dan is being replaced.
Why is that?
I have never understood the appeal of Statham and I haven't seen him in an actual GOOD movie in over ten years. (Though I haven't seen The Bank Job yet, and despite its dumb title, I've heard good things about it. I suppose I should check it out, but I'm in no rush.)
Looks like Viva La Madness is going to be a library rental for me.
I look forward to it with Statham, but I'll always love layer Cake with Craig.
Sure I wish he could have done the sequel, but that was not a realistic expectation, I think, after he became Bond.
L4yer Cake was shite.
No. Layer Cake is a great film (a film i really love as well, I watched it pretty much every weekend when I was 15 on loop). But why should he bother going back if the story isn't that compelling, the plot for Viva La Madness hardly seems worth his attention especially considering talent like David Fincher, Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes want to work with him.
There's a lot he can do aside from going back and resurrecting a character he hasn't played in 10 years. However, this is the same Daniel Craig who made Cowboys & Aliens so anythings possible.
You're not wrong there. I saw hummingbird about a month ago and I was pleasantly surprised by Statham's performance. Completely unexpected.
Not sure how I feel about a sequel. I don't like the fact that (assuming Statham plays the same character) it'll take away the ambiguity of the original's ending. I liked not being sure if he lived or died. But I'll probably give it a watch.
Yeah it is a shame. Least we still have (at least) two more Bond films from him to look forward to.
I understand, just wanted to make sure I got what you were saying. While 'Cowboys & Aliens' received pretty bad reviews and didn't do terribly well, the rest of Craig's track record has been very promising, and like I said, him not doing this is one more film he won't be signed up to do, giving him a bigger chance to do TGWPWF. Perhaps after Fincher's 'Gone Girl'?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT6liXQFgIY
Same here. Statham I consider to be a good actor (indeed,: hummingbird shows he's got far more acting 'chops' then previously seen) but why use the same character? Why not a 'similar' one for a brand new movie? It does take away one of the things I really liked about Layer cake.