40 Fun Facts About RocknRolla

What is the only part of Uri Omovich's lucky painting that viewers of RocknRolla ever get to see?

The back of the frame is all the camera shows, so the picture every crook in London chases stays a mystery. Only the characters' admiring faces hint at what it looks like.

Which regular Guy Ritchie leading man missed out on RocknRolla because of a scheduling conflict?

Jason Statham had been in three of Ritchie's earlier films, first cast because the director liked his past as a market-stall salesman.

Which pop star was Guy Ritchie's wife when he wrote and directed the gangster comedy RocknRolla?

Madonna and Ritchie were married from 2000 to 2008, so RocknRolla reached cinemas in their last year together.

In RocknRolla, which creatures is mob boss Lenny Cole fed to once Archy learns the truth?

Crayfish finish off Lenny, who is drowned among them after Archy discovers that his boss was the informant who had sent him to prison.

Which Scottish actor plays One-Two, the small-time crook at the centre of Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla?

Gerard Butler arrived not long after playing King Leonidas in 300, swapping a Spartan army for a crew of London thieves.

How does rock star Johnny Quid try to push up his record sales in Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla?

Johnny fakes his own death, betting that news of his demise will sell records, then spends the film hiding out as an addict.

Which Robert Downey Jr. blockbuster did Guy Ritchie direct next after finishing RocknRolla?

Sherlock Holmes grew out of RocknRolla: the star heard about the project while visiting his wife, producer Susan Downey, at work on the gangster film.

Which future Mad Max and Bane actor plays Handsome Bob, the getaway driver, in RocknRolla?

Tom Hardy won early notice as Handsome Bob, in the same year that his lead role in Bronson made critics take him seriously.

Which London punk band's reggae-flavoured single Bankrobber is featured in Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla?

The Clash never put Bankrobber on a studio album, and the 1980 single was at first sold in Britain only as an import.

In RocknRolla, what game are Uri Omovich and Lenny Cole playing when Victor breaks Lenny's leg?

Golf hands Victor his weapon: he takes a club to Lenny as a warning to give back the Russian's missing painting.

Which star of The Full Monty plays Lenny Cole, the old-school London mob boss, in RocknRolla?

Tom Wilkinson played Lenny in the same year he appeared as a German general opposite Tom Cruise in the war thriller Valkyrie.

Which star of The Wire plays Mumbles, One-Two's partner in crime, in Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla?

Idris Elba had finished his run as drug kingpin Stringer Bell, and his own detective series Luther was still two years off.

Which Mission: Impossible 2 actress plays the double-crossing Stella in Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla?

Thandiwe Newton is billed in the credits as Thandie, the spelling she used on screen until she reclaimed her full first name in 2021.

Which American rapper, billed as Chris Bridges, plays Mickey in Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla?

Ludacris, better known on screen as Tej Parker in the Fast & Furious films, plays one of Johnny Quid's two former managers.

Which Entourage star plays Roman, a former manager of rocker Johnny Quid, in RocknRolla?

Jeremy Piven made the film during his run as Hollywood agent Ari Gold, the role that won him three Emmys in a row.

Which actor plays Archy, Lenny Cole's right-hand man and the narrator of Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla?

Mark Strong steers viewers through the tangled plot in voice-over, and later narrated the etiquette clips shown before films at Vue cinemas.

What does Handsome Bob ask One-Two for in RocknRolla before he expects to be sent to prison?

A dance is all he wants, and One-Two finally gives him one in a scene tucked in after the credits.

In RocknRolla, what is Stella's job when she double-crosses her billionaire client Uri Omovich?

Accountant to an oligarch, Stella is asked to move his millions and instead hires One-Two's gang to rob the couriers.

Where does Archy collect Johnny Quid from at the end of RocknRolla before giving him the painting?

Rehab is where the film leaves Johnny: clean, free of his stepfather, and handed the stolen picture as a welcome-home present.

One-Two's gang in RocknRolla shares its name with which violent 1969 Sam Peckinpah western?

The Wild Bunch is a grand name for three small-time London crooks: Peckinpah's originals were ageing outlaws on the Mexican border.

Which actor, later the ape Koba in a Planet of the Apes sequel, plays Johnny Quid in RocknRolla?

Toby Kebbell came to the role a year after winning a British Independent Film Award as Joy Division's manager in Control.

Which actress played June in RocknRolla in the same year she was a Bond girl in Quantum of Solace?

Gemma Arterton was picked from around 1,500 candidates to play Strawberry Fields in the Bond film, which opened the same autumn as her small part for Ritchie.

Which actor, later Vecna in Stranger Things, has an early screen role as Rocker in RocknRolla?

Jamie Campbell Bower had co-starred a year earlier in Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd; his Vecna make-up later took up to eight hours a day.

Which actor, the villain Rasputin in Hellboy, plays Russian billionaire Uri Omovich in RocknRolla?

Karel Roden is Czech rather than Russian, and gamers may know his voice from Grand Theft Auto IV.

Which Peep Show actor, best known as Super Hans, plays Cookie in Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla?

Matt King worked Australia's comedy circuit for 15 years before returning to Britain, where Super Hans made him a cult favourite.

Which pseudonym on legal papers exposes Lenny Cole as a police informant in RocknRolla?

Sidney Shaw was Lenny's cover for handing associates to the police, buying his own freedom with years of their jail time.

Why does Uri Omovich call at Stella's house in RocknRolla, where he spots his missing painting?

To propose marriage: Uri has long admired Stella, but the sight of his picture in her home ends with an order to have her killed.

In RocknRolla, who sells Uri's stolen painting to Cookie after taking it from Johnny Quid's hideout?

Two crackheads lift it from the man who stole it first, and it then passes from Cookie to One-Two to Stella.

Which producer of The Matrix and Lethal Weapon backed RocknRolla through Dark Castle Entertainment?

Joel Silver screened the film for rival studios during post-production, and Ritchie later said Silver wanted to fund a sequel.

Which Guy Ritchie caper about a stolen diamond, starring Brad Pitt, far out-grossed RocknRolla?

Snatch took about $83 million worldwide against roughly $25 million for RocknRolla, which still made a modest return on its budget.

Which Guy Ritchie remake of a 1974 Italian film was a box-office bomb six years before RocknRolla?

Swept Away grossed about $1 million on a $10 million budget, and RocknRolla took Ritchie back to the London gangland of his first hits.

RocknRolla was a change of pace for Dark Castle Entertainment, a label built on which film genre?

Horror was the whole idea: the name honours William Castle, a filmmaker of the 1950s and 1960s whose chillers the label was founded to remake.

Which British film magazine's readers voted RocknRolla the Best British Film at its awards in 2009?

Empire handed over the prize at a London hotel in March 2009; its reader-voted awards ran from 1996 until they were dropped after 2018.

In which country did RocknRolla open at number one at the box office in its first week of release?

The UK put it straight in at number one in September 2008, a day after the film's festival premiere in Toronto.

Which Buckinghamshire estate, also seen in Goldfinger, hosted RocknRolla's opening tennis scene?

Stoke Park lent the film its grass courts and its clubhouse grounds, and Bridget Jones took her mini-break at the same estate.

Which former Velvet Underground frontman's song The Gun is heard on the RocknRolla soundtrack?

Lou Reed released The Gun on his 1982 album The Blue Mask, whose cover reworks the famous Transformer photograph in blue.

Which Swedish garage rock band's early track The Stomp appears on the RocknRolla soundtrack?

The Hives first put The Stomp on Barely Legal, the 1997 debut album they made after signing to a Swedish independent label.

Which singer, nicknamed the Queen of Rockabilly, sings Funnel of Love on the RocknRolla soundtrack?

Wanda Jackson first released Funnel of Love in 1961 as the B-side of a country-pop single, and she once briefly dated Elvis Presley.

Black Strobe's I'm a Man, heard in RocknRolla, is a cover of a 1955 song by which rock pioneer?

Bo Diddley recorded I'm a Man in Chicago as the B-side of his first single, and Muddy Waters answered it weeks later with Mannish Boy.

Which English indie rock trio's single Rock & Roll Queen plays on the RocknRolla soundtrack?

The Subways took their name from the underpass in Welwyn Garden City where the three members used to hang around.