J.J. Connolly’s 2000 novel Layer Cake became the basis for Matthew Vaughn’s directorial debut in 2004. Now, Deadline reports that a big screen take on Connolly’s 2011 sequel, Viva La Madness, is on the way and that Jason Statham is set to take on the nameless lead role (played by Daniel Craig in the 2004 film).
“From the many levels of the London underworld portrayed in ‘Layer Cake,’ ‘Viva la Madness’ moves to international crime with trans-Atlantic drug deals, money laundering and high-tech electronic fraud, portrayed with the same uncanny believability,” reads the novel’s official description. “The anonymous hero of ‘Layer Cake’ is pulled back into the drug game before he can escape to a sunny retirement: in an authentic but dazzling combination of London low-life, Caribbean high-life and Venezuelan drug cartels toting machine-guns in Mayfair. The brilliance and the madness is back:Viva la madness!
Statham can next be seen later this month in Gary Fleder’s Homefront. He then re-teams with The Mechanic and The Expendables 2‘s Simon West for Heat before starring in two major franchise sequels, Patrick Hughes’ The Expendables 3 and James Wan’s Fast & Furious 7.
Statham will produce Viva La Madness alongside Steve Chasman through their SJ Pictures.
(Photo Credit: WENN.com)
