With Revolver - the story of Jake, a man just out of jail who embarks on an elaborate scheme to avenge himself on the man for whom he took the fall - writer/director Guy Ritchie returns to the world he visited with such success in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. He explains why.

Where did the inspiration for Revolver come from?

It was a culmination of concepts really, but a germ got stuck in my mind about one particular concept: the con of all cons. I’m fascinated by how you can trick the mind. The formula of the con is quite simple – you seduce people by their own greed. The great challenge, then, was to take an intellectual concept and clothe it in an exciting, action-packed narrative, because concepts are not necessarily interesting to look at. It took me three years to write this film, whereas Snatch took me three months. Fundamentally, it’s not a very complicated film: it’s actually quite simple, but to clothe it within a narrative was quite complicated.

Is there a message?

I don’t think so. The idea is that that there is no such thing as an external enemy. Jake Green is playing against Jake Green, which is initially quite a hard concept to get your head around. It’s based on the formula that you can only get smarter by playing a smarter opponent. And who is the ultimate opponent? Yourself. Then comes the principle that your enemy will always hide in the last place that you would ever look. The last place you would look is inside your head and the last place you would look inside your head is behind fear. I’m not saying that the formula’s correct: it’s just a formula and I’m interested in formulae. It’s funny, I never expected as a writer-director to end up talking about high-falutin’ concepts. I got into filmmaking because I was interested in making entertaining movies, which I felt there was a lack of.

How does Jake get drawn into the game?

One of the first rules of business is to protect your investment. I like the idea that we do the same with our personal philosophies. Once we have decided what’s right, irrespective of whether we are right or wrong, the more energy we will invest to protect that. And that is basically how con men work: they get you to invest a little bit, then a bit more. They never tell you to buy something, just ‘Take a look’. Even looking is an investment: as soon as you’ve contributed some of your energy to looking - to appraising a certain article - then a small investment has been made. From a small investment comes a larger one, from a larger investment comes a greater one, until eventually you’ve invested so much that you can’t be wrong - because, if you are wrong, it must mean you’re stupid and nobody can admit that they’re stupid.