Jason Statham is back on our screens next year in new action movie Mutiny, but you can take a trip back to one of his earliest roles tonight.
The Italian Job, released in 2003, is a remake of the classic 1969 British heist movie of the same name. We say remake, but really it's a totally different story with different characters that's more inspired by that movie.
Statham stars as Handsome Rob, a charming ladies' man who is the driver for the heist that kicks off the plot. It was arguably his first major Hollywood role (sorry Ghosts of Mars) after he broke through with Lock, Stock and Snatch.
If you fancy a rewatch (or even a first-time watch), The Italian Job airs tonight (December 18) at 10.45pm on ITV1.
Related: First look at Jason Statham's new action movie
We get if that's too late for a movie watch, so you can always watch it right now on ITV's streaming service ITVX for free.
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The Italian Job also stars Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, Seth Green, Mos Def and the late Donald Sutherland.
Back in 2020, Theron spoke about how working on the movie turned out to be a "great experience" for something it taught her about working in the action genre at the time.
Related: Jason Statham's action remake is now on Netflix
"I realised there was still so much misconception around women in the genre, even though in that film the action is really based on cars. We had to physically do a lot of that stuff. There was a very unfair process that went with that," she recalled.
"I was the only woman with a bunch of guys and I remember vividly getting the schedule in our pre-production and they had scheduled me for six weeks more car training than any of the guys. And it was just so insulting.
"But it was also the thing that put a real fire under my ass. And I was like, 'Alright, you guys want to play this game? Let's go'. And I made it a point to out-drive all of those guys."
The Italian Job airs tonight (December 18) at 10.45pm on ITV1.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
