Guy Ritchie To Direct 'TREASURE ISLAND'

Deadline reports that Guy Ritchie has finally announced his next directorial effort as he's signed on to direct and produce a new adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson pirate classic Treasure Island. Warner Bros. hopes Ritchie can work his magic on Treasure Island as he did with Sherlock Holmes, who can blame them since it's one of the more interesting franchises of recent memory. The only problem is that these sort of projects set on the high-seas are wildly extensive and can be disastrous at the box office. Pirates seemingly had an edge thanks in part to Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow. It'll be difficult to see how Ritchie will be able to cast someone to give the same iconic energy to the morally ambiguous Long John Silver and the young Jim Hawkins. The last time Ritchie made an island themed feature we ended up with a remake of Swept Away starring his then wife Madonna which almost ruined his career, as the film was poorly received. It look Guy a couple of films (Sherlock Holmes) before he could shake off the stigma that the remake had done. Hopefully this round he'll be very careful with cast choices.

It seemed to be a toss up to what Ritchie was going to make next with Sherlock Holmes 3 going under script development by Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3, Runaways) but Robert Downey Jr. is slowing things down action film-wise after Iron Man 3. The Man From U.N.C.L.E., a 60's era spy adventure film that Guy became producer of when director Steven Soderberg left the project. His sequel to RockNRolla titled The Real RockNRolla had been long in development but with the original cast in such high demand it would be difficult to wrangle them back. Not to mention a string of previous projects he had been linked to such as Lobo, Sgt. Rock, Xerxes (300: Battle of Artemisia) and a remake of The Dirty Dozen.

Guy Ritchie Gives A Real RockNRolla Update

Guy Ritchie is become a staple director at Warner Bros. handling their Sherlock Holmes franchise and is in talks for their 60's era spy blockbuster The Man From UNCLE. Ritchie talked to MovieLine and revealed the status of his sequel to RockNRolla that had the working title of The Real RockNRolla. The sequel had been teased at the end of the first film and fans have actively waiting for Guy to finally get around to making it.

"You know, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it! I’ve written a script, I think it’s a great script, and Joel [Silver] wants to pay for me to do it. But up until now we haven’t had the time to do it," Ritchie said. "It’s sitting there and we’d all like to do it, it’s just a question of when we’re going to fit it in. So we’ll wait and see."

Luckily, RockNRolla had been a Warner Bros. film with studio producer Joel Silver also involved. Silver is also working with Ritchie on his Sherlock Holmes franchise. It seems like RDJ is keen on taking a bit of break from Holmes even if the studio is currently writing a third film. So like I've said previously he could end up making two films between Sherlock Holmes 2 and 3. The only thing that could derail The Real RockNRolla is possibly The Man From UNCLE and it's sequels. Also, the cast of the original seems to be blowing up on their own. It might be hard to lock in Gerard Butler, Idris Elba, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong and Toby Kebbell for the sequel.

When Will We See Guy Ritchie's The Real RockNRolla?

 The article on the site that gets the most traffic and comments is the one focusing on Guy Ritchie's The Real RockNRolla. It's been promised ever since the original theatrical release of RockNRolla and it was even teased in the credits. Since then Guy Ritchie has been focused on many other projects. I'm going to run down what those movies are and the prospects of when we could expect Ritchie to start production on the RockNRolla sequel.

When it comes to Ritchie's current project he is shooting Sherlock Holmes 2 with Robert Downey Jr. The now established franchise is giving Guy more commercial success than he's ever had before. I expect like with other dedicated Warner Bros. directors (Nolan, Snyder) he will be rewarded with financing for his original projects. The only setback is that he might want to round out a Holmes trilogy before jumping into anything else. I wouldn't be shocked to see Sherlock Holmes 3 his next film.

Guy's previously attached projects could also become a hold up on The Real RockNRolla. He's been in talks with producer Joel Silver to helm both Lobo and Sgt. Rock which are based on the DC comics.
The studio had filmed test shots for Lobo with Jeffery Dean Morgan (Watchmen) and possibly Clancy Brown (Highlander, Starship Troopers). Sgt. Rock is also in development hell and is being re-tool from being set during WWII to the future. I'm not sure if the productions stopped because of Holmes 2 or the fact the characters were taken from Silver by DC Entertainment.


Ritchie has also been attached to direct remakes of the Dirty Dozen and Excalibur for the studio. From what I understand Dozen got the axe because of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. I'm sure it will eventually happen but needs time between the Tarantino film.

Excalibur was once part of Bryan Singer's long list of projects in the works. He's been focused on Jack The Giant Killer which made opt out on directing X-Men First Class. Giving Matthew Vaughn the chance to finally show us his version of the X-Men universe. It would be interesting to see Ritchie take on the world of fantasy.


Another dreaded obstacle could be Ritchie signing onto new projects. Mark Millar teased that Ritchie along with Sam Raimi had been interested in making a movie based on his comic Nemesis. The project now has Tony Scott in the director's chair setup at 20th Century Fox. It's not surprising to see his name involved with Millar's projects since Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn is a friend and producer of Guy's films. Vaughn helped produce Lock Stock, Snatch and Swept Away. Millar is now teasing that his new comic Superior will become a film. Superior is a mix of iconic comic book mythology taking influences from Superman, Thor and Shazam!. The comic writer says the director would be announced in January. There is a possibility Guy Ritchie very well could be this name.

A very doubtful but still possible project could be Iron Man 3. It's unlikely because of Guy's current relationship with both DC and Warner Bros. Yet Robert Downey Jr. has director approval and could choose someone he's worked with before.

There could also be other unnamed projects which come up and he signs on. My expectations is that while The Real RockNRolla script is more than likely completed Guy could focus more on his high profile projects first. I wouldn't assume to see it go into production until 2012-2013 at the earliest. While there is enough of a demand from fans of the original he is sort of moving forward with different types of films. You can't blame him for wanting to expand his genres and can respect wanting to try different things.