Along with period dramas and saucy comedies, the British film industry leads the way in crime capers and The Bank Job, Roger Donaldson’s latest flick, channels the spirit of The Italian Job et al with a based-on-real-events tale of dodgy dealers and bravura blags - with the benefit of added Jason Statham.
At the World Premiere in Leicester Square on Monday night, Donaldson explained how the true-life story in which the culprits (and the cash) were never found, manages to remain faithful to real events.
“How real to life is this? Well, I tried to make it as realistic as possible,” said the Dante’s Peak and Thirteen Days director. “We did a lot of research to make sure everything looked like the Seventies. We put a lot of effort in trying to make everything look genuine.
“In terms of the story, I did as much research as I could. But what I discovered is that the more research you do on a period drama, the harder it is to really find out what happened. I was watching TV before I came over here tonight and I was watching the Diana story unfold and you realise that even 10 years later people have very conflicting opinions on what really happened. That’s really how I feel about this movie, there’s some stuff I know I got right 100 per cent but what really happened, well, this is just our version of it.”
Questions of slavish realism aside, The Bank Job features a veritable cavalcade of Brit faces (including the likes of David Suchet, Daniel Mays, Saffron Burrows and ex-EastEnder Craig Fairbrass amongst the usual suspects) and Donaldson was more than happy with the final roster.
“I had a fantastic cast, I can’t say enough about them,” he said. “Our casting director really has her finger on the pulse of the best talent in England. The hardest thing I had to do was who to say no to.”
As for his star, would he be happy to join forces with The Stath again?
“We’ve talked about working together again. We had a great time on this movie and I’d love to do something with Jason again,” he said. “But I don’t think The Transporter is my cup of tea – I love gritty thrillers like The Bourne Identity, he’d be great in something like that.”
Talking about the shaven-head, plain-taking purveyor of ass-whippery, what’s he got coming up then? Well, aside from a remake of Death Race, there’s sequels to The Transporter and Crank in the works – but hang on, didn’t the brilliantly named Chev Chelios die at the end of the original Crank? How does that work then?
“It works because we want it to work,” said Statham. “He lives at the end - if you look closely you can see a little blink and hear a little heartbeat. He gets shovelled off the street and slung into the back of a van and the rest I can’t tell you. It’s a continuation straight from the end of the last one.”
And what about the return of The Transporter’s Frank Martin?
“The first day of work was today, I was in Paris,” said the big man. “I’ve got a big fight scene tomorrow and I’m looking forward to that. I’ve got this big man who’s come over from Korea – he’s seven foot two, so I’m to have to stand on a box to bash him.”
The Bank Job goes on general release from February 28.