Jason Statham is looking to return to his British roots with a follow-up to the 2004 Matthew Vaughn film Layer Cake.  Deadline reports that Statham and producing partner Steve Chasman have acquired the rights to author J.J. Connolly’s Layer Cake follow-up novel Viva La Madness with an eye towards Statham taking over the unnamed protagonist role that was filled by Daniel Craig in Vaughn's film.  Connolly will script Viva La Madness, which finds the character moving into the world of international crime with trans-Atlantic drug deals, money laundering, and high-tech electronic fraud.  More after the jump.

Deadline’s report has no word on who might direct Viva La Madness, but I for one hope they stick with a British filmmaker to maintain the same sensibility as Layer Cake.  Statham recently wrapped a role in The Expendables 3 and is currently filming his turn as the antagonist in Fast & Furious 7, with both films set for release in 2014.  Also on the horizon is a possible comedic turn opposite Melissa McCarthy in director Paul Feig's spy pic Susan Cooper.  Watch the trailer for Layer Cake below.

Here’s a synopsis for Viva La Madness:

J. J. Connolly the favorite voice of London gangster fiction returns with a tour de force: the Get Carter of the noughties, Layer Cake has also been made into a highly-praised film by Matthew Vaughn, starring Daniel Craig and Sienna Miller (it's also the most shoplifted book in England). Now Connolly is back with a sequel that sees him on the same stunning form, with his trademark razor-sharp dialogue and quick-fire violence, but also finding dark humor and pathos in the lives of violent men. From the London underworld, Viva la Madness moves to international crime with trans-Atlantic drug deals, money laundering, and high-tech electronic fraud, portrayed with the same uncanny believability. The anonymous hero of Layer Cake is pulled back into the drug game before he can escape to a sunny retirement. In a dazzling combination of London low-life, Caribbean high-life, and Venezuelan drug cartels toting machine-guns in Mayfair, our hero's voice and mission are authentic, thrilling, and whiplash-inducing in equal shares. [Amazon]

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