Ahhh, the benefits of being Jason Statham stretch far beyond getting paid to play the same ass-kicker role in every movie. For the last few years he's been dating Victoria's Secret model and Transformers 3 eye candy Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and I can't help but wonder if he asked her out or just threw in the trunk of his car like The Transporter. Last summer, during one of the rare times I peruse celebrity gossip sites, there was a story about Huntington-Whiteley having (looking stunning in her bikini) chatting with Statham about Viva La Madness, the book from Layer Cake author J.J. Connolly. Turns out it wasn't for nothing, and now Statham has picked up the rights to the novel with plans of starring in a big screen version.
Many may have forgotten it, but the path to Daniel Craig becoming James Bond began with 2004's Layer Cake, which was directed by Matthew Vaughn. The slick crime thriller followed an unnamed businessman/drug dealer with a personal code of ethics, who deals with various international entanglements. At the end of the film the lead character is shot and left bleeding with his fate undetermined, but he's apparently survived in this sequel will be looking to retire, but instead must contend with "trans-Atlantic drug deals, money laundering, hi-tech electronic fraud, London low-lives and Venezuelan drug cartels."
Connolly will adapt the screenplay with Statham and Steve Chasman producing. It's another chance for Statham to play a popular literary antihero who has been portrayed by numerous others, just as he did in Parker earlier this year. It also puts him squarely back into the Brit crime thriller real where he built his career working alongside Guy Ritchie in films like Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. [Deadline]
