Latest on Guy Ritchie’s Revolver from Empire online

With Layer Cake currently performing admirably at the UK box office, and producer-turned-director Matthew Vaughn soaking up all the headlines, you could have been forgiven for thinking that Guy Ritchie, Vaughn’s partner in crime in formerly reinventing the British crime flick with Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch – had either fallen into a well, or was simply content to sit around at home with his wife, Madonna. Certainly, he was conspicuous by his absence.

Well, not anymore. For Ritchie is back back back, having spent a sufficiently lengthy period of time licking his wounds after the lamentable Swept Away. And, just to make sure that that remains a one-off in his oeuvre, his latest is a return to his crime flick roots, and the missus is nowhere in sight.

Revolver stars Ray Liotta and Ritchie repertory company player, Jason Statham, in the London-set tale of a gambler who gets in way over his head, with potentially fatal results. The movie is shooting, as we type, on location in our fair capital city and the Isle Of Man where, no doubt, Liotta is being freaked out by those crazy Manx cats.

There may be some who will greet this news with a shrug of the shoulders, and cry “same old, same old”. But Ritchie is a talented helmer; he re-enervated the genre with the sheer bravado of Lock, Stock, while Snatch remains a powerful and funny exercise in style – it’s not his fault that a hundred talentless film school grads decided to follow in his footsteps.

Besides, Revolver promises to be different in tone and scope to his previous efforts, with an emphasis on substantial action. Vaughn’s not involved, also; the movie’s produced by Marty Katz and one M. Luc Besson. And quite frankly, Empire will back anything that stars the under-rated Statham – as long as he keeps his penchant for wandering accents under control.

Revolver has been on the Ritchie back burner for a while. He actually set the project aside a year ago to concentrate on Sony’s Western, Six Shooter, but when that fell apart, he resurrected the script, which is also the first he didn’t write exclusively himself (he co-wrote with Ethan Gross and Paul Todisco). Needless to say, we’ll be all over this one like a rash. The minute Vinnie Jones signs on for a cameo, we’ll let you know

Source: Empire Online