Ritchie Goes Back to Basics with ‘RocknRolla’

Guy Ritchie, writer-director of Snatch, Revolver and Lock Stock and Two Barrels is stepping into the same familiar roles for his just announced RocknRolla, a caper film to be shot near Ritchie’s birthplace of London. The producers are eyeing a summer shooting schedule.

The film is being produced by hit maker Joel Silver (The Matrix), and is said to begin casting immediately. The plot involves a Russian mobster who goes against the London underground by setting up bogus heists.

Producers hope the new “ensemble based” crime drama will help bolster Ritchie’s reputation. Critics and audiences alike poorly received Ritchie’s most recent films, Swept Away and Revolver. Silver Dark Castle Films, with a distribution deal through WB, has given the film only a modest budget. Hopefully Ritchie’s return to familiar territory, both in location and production, will pull him from the rut he dug himself with his recent projects.