Gaumont International Television – the production company behind Hannibal and Hemlock Grove – is developing Viva La Madness, an hour-long TV series based on J.J. Connolly novel of the same name which has Transporter alum Jason Statham attached to star.
The next installment to Connolly’s novel Layer Cake, Viva La Madness follows an anonymous hero who is stranded in the Caribbean itching for the criminal life he left behind, but he’s still a wanted man back home. Soon he joins forces with two robust London gangsters: the menacing Sonny King and his paranoid partner Roy “Twitchy” Burns.
Jason Statham owns the rights to the property alongside Steven Chasman and as such the two will serve as executive producers on the series, which does not yet have a network attached (Gaumont will begin shopping it to broadcast, cable and internet outlets shortly). Author J.J. Connolly is penning the scripts and will also executive produce.
“The way J.J. writes is so on the ball and authentic its hard to let any of it go. Trying to lose characters or shave down scenes every other page didn’t work, we wanted it all”, series star and executive producer Jason Statham said in a statement. “The best place was a 10 hour plus show that lets you fully disappear into Connolly’s world”.
“Viva La Madness, with its riveting characters and twisting storyline, is a volatile cocktail of action and comedy that only J.J. Connolly can create”, said Katie O’Connell Marsh, CEO of Gaumont International Television. “Jason Statham, known for his roles in the Transporter trilogy, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, The Bank Job, as well as the recent Furious 7 and Spy, brings such strength and credibility to his characters but also has an effortless shade of vulnerability that gives him so much dimension on screen.”
