JASON STATHAM

BY: Amanda Jane Stern

We are entering the 4th decade of collaboration between director Guy Ritchie and actor Jason Statham, beginning back in the 90s with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. That film was the directorial and film acting debut for both Ritchie and Statham, respectively.

Since then, the duo collaborated on Snatch and Revolver in the early 2000s. In the intervening decade and a half, Statham has gone onto the Fast & Furious and The Expendables franchises. And Ritchie’s collection of kinetic crime, gangster, and gritty action movies have an uneven track record at the box-office and among critics. His Robert Downey Jr.-led take on Sherlock Holmes clicked with audiences, but his Charlie Hunnam-led take on King Arthur sank into the swamp.

In the action-thriller Wrath of Man, Jason Statham plays the enigmatic H. He joins the security team of a Los Angeles cash truck company with a secret agenda. Statham’s character uses the job as an entry point to find and dispatch the men who killed his son. 

Also driving along in the truck with Statham is Holt McCallany (better known as Bill Tench in David Fincher’s Netflix series Mindhunter) as Bullet, and Josh Hartnett (Black Hawk Down and Pearl Harbor). American rapper and croc enthusiast Post Malone also pops up in the film.  

The film is the English-language remake of the 2004 French film Cash Truck, directed initially by Nicolas Boukhrief, a screenwriter of 2006’s Silent Hill. Ritchie co-wrote the screenplay with writers Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies, both credited writers on Ritchie’s 2019 film, The Gentlemen.

According to Lionsgate, it picked up the film as soon as it heard that Ritchie and Statham were teaming up again. And that creative duo will be coupling up again for the upcoming spy film Five Eyes, now shooting. Ritchie is directing, and Statham will star with Aubrey Plaza and Cary Elwes.

After initially being scheduled for release earlier this year, COVID-19 delayed it. Wrath of Man will now open in theaters on May 7, 2021.