A large film production has been using Putney Embankment as a location this week, with a Thames marine services vessel among the equipment. The setup is consistent with Viva La Madness, the Guy Ritchie action thriller starring Jason Statham that has been filming across London since February.
A reader, Ed Coke, photographed a substantial production setup at the Embankment on 29 April. A filming licence taped to a lamppost confirmed the shoot had official approval: the standard permit councils issue before a production can take over a public space.
The production has not confirmed the location, but Viva La Madness is the only major film known to be shooting Thames locations in London at this time. The cast includes Vinnie Jones, Jason Isaacs, Camila Mendes, Ben Foster and Jonny Lee Miller alongside Statham, who was still filming on London streets as recently as March. The film is directed by Ritchie and distributed by Amazon MGM internationally.
The film is based on JJ Connolly’s 2011 novel, a sequel to his crime thriller Layer Cake (the one that starred Daniel Craig and led to his casting as James Bond). In the book, an unnamed criminal is lured back to London from the Caribbean and finds himself caught between rival factions who cannot agree on whether to deal with him or kill him. The Thames setting is not coincidental.
The Ritchie-Statham partnership goes back nearly 30 years. Ritchie cast Statham in his 1998 debut Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels after auditioning him by asking him to pretend to be an illegal street vendor and convince him to buy fake jewellery. Statham, who had actually worked London market stalls, barely had to act. Vinnie Jones, also in the Viva La Madness cast, made his film debut in Lock, Stock too and grew up with Statham in Derbyshire.
The new hot location?
This is not Putney’s first brush with a major production, even just this year. The new Idris Elba Luther film quietly shot on Wimbledon Common in February, and a Putney street is due to be featured in an adaptation of the children’s book Mr Benn.
Did you see the crew filming this week? Did you spot anyone from the cast, or catch any footage of the production on the water? Let us know at news@putney.news.
