Right at the start of his career, Jason Statham made his movie debut in the films of Guy Ritchie – his first feature was Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, and he followed it up with a role in Ritchie’s follow-up Snatch. From there, Statham has gone on to become a defining Hollywood hardman of recent decades, from Crank to the Fast saga – but for his next role, the actor has teamed up with Ritchie again in Wrath Of Man. It’s a crime thriller set in the world of armoured cash-trucks, and marks his first Ritchie movie since 2005.
“Revolver was the last thing we did,” Ritchie tells Empire in the new issue. “You keep looking at each other and realising you’re all 50. Mind you, he hasn’t fuckin’ aged a day. But it’s funny, you have these weird shifts in time. We’ve been apart for 15 years? It feels like we made Lock, Stock 15 days ago.” All this time later, Statham is playing ‘H’, a cash truck driver with a mysterious past – and who’s not to be crossed lightly. “Our relationship is identical to what it was the first time I worked with him,” says Ritchie, all these years on from ’98 debut. “We’re still playing a lot of chess.”
Read Empire’s full Wrath Of Man preview in the new issue, on sale Thursday 13 May – and available to pre-order online here. Find the film in UK cinemas from 23 July.