Viva La Madness is 'very Snatch-esque', Jason Statham spills on new film with Guy Ritchie
Jason Statham is reuniting with Guy Ritchie for new British gangster film Viva La Madness, and the action star has revealed the flick will be "very Snatch-esque", refereeing to the 2000 movie the pair made about the London criminal underworld.
Jason Statham has spilled that Guy Ritchie's next film Viva La Madness is "very Snatch-esque".
The 58-year-old actor is reuniting with Ritchie, 57, for the British gangster film, which is based on J. J. Connolly's novel of the same name, in what will be the pair's sixth collaboration.
Statham is looking forward to getting started on the movie which is a return to his roots and he claims Viva La Madness has a lot of similarities to 2000 box office hit Snatch, in which Jason starred alongside Brad Pitt as a bare knuckle fighter from a traveller community.
Speaking to BANG Showbiz at the UK premiere of his new film Shelter in Leicester Square, London, on Tuesday night (21.01.26), he said: "I’ve not done anything like what we’re about to do, in that sort of vein, for quite a while now. I’ve been doing a lot of action.
"Anyone who likes this type of film, it’s back to the days of Snatch. This is very Snatch-esque in terms of colourful characters, drugs, criminals, bad guys, that kind of stuff. It’s great."
It was Ritchie who gave Statham his acting break in his 1998 crime-comedy film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, casting him in the role of wheeler-dealer Bacon due to his real-life background working on market stalls in London.
Statham and Ritchie will also be reuniting with former football player Vinnie Jones - who they worked with on Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch - and the action legend is thrilled to be working with his filmmaker friend again.
Jason - who last worked with Guy on 2023 spy comedy Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre - said: "He gave me a career and almost 30 years later I’m still going. I owe him a lot. I think it’s movie number six for me and him.
“When we get back together we have a great time doing these things. We like what we do."
Statham was joined on the special green carpet at the premiere of Shelter by his co-stars Bill Nighy and Bodhi Rae Breathnach, as well as director Ric Roman Waugh.
Shelter follows Statham's character Mason, a former assassin living on a remote Scottish island who rescues a teenage girl from the sea beginning a perilous chain of events that force him to confront his violent past.
Talking about the plot of Shelter, Statham said: "I think it’s a very unique movie. I’ve done a lot of these films, this one doesn’t smell like anything I’ve ever done before. I think it’s got a very gritty, very heartfelt story, I think you’ll be on the edge of your seats with all the action.
"I think you’ll have an emotional reaction to these two people that get brought together under strange circumstances and they find purpose in one another. It’s a very cool tale and we’ve got a lot of action to stack on top of it, which is the expectation when you come out and watch these things.”
Shelter is in cinemas from January 30.
