Guy Ritchie didn’t have to look very far when he was searching for inspiration in his upcoming crime caper drama, “Rock N Rolla.” One of the McGuffin-like characters in the film is Johnny Story, a fuck-up rock n roll star who gets the story rolling when a stolen painting owned by the Russian mob inadvertently falls into his hands.
A drug-addled British rock star rumored to be dead once a week (played by the very-excellent up-and-coming Toby Kebell) the character lives in squalor, hidden away in a crack den. Remind you of anyone. Ex-Libtertine/ formerly ubiquitous British tabloidsperson Pete Doherty perhaps?
Richie admitted to the Manchester United News, that when he was writing the film, Doherty and his sad life were the chief inspiration for the Johnny Story character.
“At the time I was writing it, Pete Doherty was everywhere. It’s either genius marketing or a happy – or unhappy – accident. It’s creative self-destruction in the sense that he’s doing it creatively. I think what we all like is someone who fell and then stood up again. And that’s probably the story with Doherty.”
While he hasn’t quite said it outright, Ritchie has been hinting that the main theme of “Rock N Rolla” is the death of the old guard. He describes it as “old school gangsters getting pushed out by the new school.” The director’s 5th film is due in U.K. theaters September 5 and comes out October 31 in North America theaters. The film will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival at the beginning of September. Pete Doherty is amazingly still alive and has been relatively quiet in the U.K. press now that Amy Winehouse has taken over their daily deathwatch count. Perhaps he’s doing better.
