RocknRolla is a 2008 action comedy crime film written and directed by Guy Ritchie, and starring Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Thandiwe Newton, Mark Strong, Idris Elba, Tom Hardy, Gemma Arterton and Toby Kebbell. It was released on 5 September 2008 in the United Kingdom, hitting number one in the UK box office in its first week of release. Over the years, the film has gained a cult following.
Uri agrees to Lenny's price of €7,000,000 to grease the council's wheels, and as a sign of trust, Uri loans Lenny his "lucky painting." Yet when Uri arranges for Stella to move the funds, she double-crosses him and hires the Wild Bunch to steal the money. Unfortunately for Lenny, however, his junkie stepson Johnny Quid (Toby Kebbell), supposedly dead, steals the painting from Lenny's wall. Lenny and Archy then coerce Johnny's American managers Mickey (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges) and Roman (Jeremy Piven) into tracking down Johnny. In a subplot, Handsome Bob gets close to Stella's gay husband, a lawyer who has information on a longtime unknown informer in their criminal circle whose information has Bob looking at a five-year prison term.
Uri tasks Stella once more with covertly siphoning the necessary payoff from his holdings, and grows increasingly enamoured with her. When his moneymen are once again robbed by the Wild Bunch, his assistant Victor convinces him that it's likely Lenny who is behind the robberies, and is also purposely keeping Uri's lucky painting from him. Uri & Victor then invite Lenny to a private golf game on a golf course owned by Uri, where Victor beats him savagely with a golf club, finishing by breaking Lenny's leg as a warning to him.
Cookie (Matt King) happens to buy the painting from some crackheads who had just stolen it from Johnny's hideout. Cookie then gives the painting to One-Two who, in turn, offers the painting to Stella (after a sexual encounter) as a token of appreciation. After Stella leaves his flat, One-Two is surprised by Uri's henchmen but is rescued, and then kidnapped, by Archy and his goons who had come looking for Uri's money.
Uri wants to marry Stella, whom he has long admired. He goes to Stella's house to propose, but he then spots the painting. Stella lies and says she has had it for years. Uri, enraged by Stella's betrayal, orders Victor to kill her.
Archy brings Johnny, Roman, Mickey and the Wild Bunch to Lenny's warehouse where Lenny orders Johnny executed. He threatens to kill the Wild Bunch "very slowly" unless they give up the money they stole. Handsome Bob offers the legal documents concerning the informant in his pocket to Archy. Archy recognises the pseudonym used on the documents, "Sidney Shaw", as belonging to Lenny. Lenny arranged the police to routinely lock up many criminal associates (including Archy) for years at a time to enhance his own standing in the criminal underworld and to ensure his own freedom. Archy orders Lenny's men to free the Wild Bunch and has Lenny drowned and fed to crayfish.
In the lift, Johnny explains to Roman and Mickey that they will also be killed to leave no witnesses, and graphically explains the manner of their executions. His description unnerves the man who's to execute the three men, prompting him to act prematurely. Having also already anticipated this move, Johnny warns Mickey and Roman to intervene and kill their would-be executioner. Johnny shoots two more men waiting at the top of the lift and they escape the last of Archy's men (with help from One-Two and the Wild Bunch).
Later, Archy picks up Johnny from rehab and gives Johnny Uri's lucky painting as a welcome home present. Archy says that obtaining the painting "cost a very wealthy Russian an arm and a leg" implying he had Uri killed. Johnny proclaims that, with his new-found freedom from addiction and from his stepfather, he will do what he could not before: "become a real RocknRolla".
The film ends with the title card stating, "Johnny, Archy and the Wild Bunch will be back in The Real RocknRolla."
Casting
- Gerard Butler as One-Two, a Scottish mobster who is the leader of the Wild Bunch.
- Mark Strong as Archy, Lenny Cole's right-hand man and the film's narrator.
- Tom Wilkinson as Lenny Cole, a head mobster part of London's declining old school mob regime.
- Toby Kebbell as Johnny Quid, a musician and Lenny's estranged, drug-addicted stepson. It is implied that he faked his own death after anticipating that the news of his demise would cause his music sales to go up.
- Tom Hardy as Handsome Bob, a member of the Wild Bunch who is closeted gay and has a semi-secret crush on One-Two.
- Idris Elba as Mumbles, One-Two's partner and a member of the Wild Bunch.
- Karel Roden as Uri Omovich, a Russian business oligarch.
- Thandiwe Newton (credited as Thandie Newton) as Stella, Uri's accountant and One-Two's love interest.
- Dragan Mićanović as Victor, Omovich's right-hand man.
- David Bark-Jones as Bertie, Stella's gay husband who works as a criminal lawyer.
- Matt King as Cookie
- Geoff Bell as Fred
- Jeremy Piven as Roman
- Ludacris as Mickey
- Gemma Arterton as June
- Jimi Mistry as the Councillor
- Nonso Anozie as Tank
- David Leon as Malcolm
- Bronson Webb as Paul
- Michael Ryan as Pete
- Robert Stone as the Nightclub Bouncer
- Jamie Campbell Bower as Rocker
- Tiffany Mulheron as Jackie
A scheduling conflict prevented director Guy Ritchie from casting actor Jason Statham, who had appeared in four of his previous films.
In May 2007, director Guy Ritchie announced the production of RocknRolla, to be produced by Ritchie's own company, Toff Guy Films, Joel Silver's Dark Castle Entertainment, and French company StudioCanal, with distribution by Warner Bros. The following June, Ritchie hired the cast for RocknRolla, and filming began on location in London on 19 June 2007. Two scenes were filmed at Stoke Park, Buckinghamshire: the opening scene on the grass tennis courts, and the round of golf which takes place on the 21st green with the clubhouse in the background.
