DB7

Ritchie continues criminal career

Staff and agencies
Tuesday July 25, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

Guy Ritchie has signed on to direct his next film, and surprise, surprise, it will be a gangster caper.

The British film-maker is to direct Static, the story of a wrongly imprisoned gangster who must testify against the bent cops who put him behind bars. Standing in the way to the courthouse, however, is an assortment of crooked policemen and rival criminals who'd rather he shut up.

Ritchie will rewrite and direct the script, originally written by New Zealand director Brad McGann in 2001. He is the third director to be approached for the job, following Stephen Kay, who directed the 2000 remake of Get Carter, and the music video director Chris Robinson.

Static will be Ritchie's fourth gangster film, after Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch and Revolver. It is perhaps confirmation that Ritchie is returning to safer ground after his disastrous foray into romantic comedy with 2002's Swept Away, a prize turkey starring Mrs Ritchie, Madonna. The film was never released in British cinemas after vitriolic reviews across the pond ("Not even a liferaft can save Madonna's latest sinker," was the typically dismissive verdict of The New York Post).

Static will be Ritchie's first project since 2005's Revolver, also the story of a wrongly imprisoned gangster bent on revenge. On the latter's release, the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw said that "after Revolver, Swept Away now looks like Citizen Kane".