It has been nine years since Daniel Craig played the unnamed protagonist in Layer Cake and 13 years since author J.J. Connolly’s debut was first published, which means that we have been long overdue for a sequel to answer our most pressing question. If you don’t know what that question is because you haven’t watched Layer Cake, you need to drop whatever you’re doing right now – including tending to a small child or performing brain surgery – and watch it, because it’s a great film. Then come back and react appropriately to the big news about the sequel, Viva la Madness.
According to Deadline, Jason Statham and his producing partner, Steve Chasman, have acquired the rights to Connolly’s follow-up novel, Viva la Madness, through their company, SJ Pictures, and that basically means that Statham, not Craig, will play the unnamed retiree in the sequel, as he will be “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.” Add to that the fact that Matthew Vaughn probably won’t return to direct, and this is some pretty lousy news, blokes.
But I guess that’s just the facts of life.