Guy Ritchie turned down the chance to direct the 2000 blockbuster Charlie's Angels shortly after his breakout with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, choosing instead to make his own gangster classic Snatch. Ritchie has explained that he avoided the studio picture because it would have stripped him of creative control, preferring instead to keep making low-budget, distinctly British films that let him retain authorship over his work.

Ritchie said he might have accepted the Charlie's Angels job had it been offered before he had established his name, but by that point he was unwilling to cede control to a major studio. He noted that Charlie's Angels cost more than ten times the budget of Snatch, and argued that big-budget films leave directors "at the mercy of the studio's whims", whereas his cheaper productions allowed studios to leave him alone. Making Snatch instead let him build on his signature style, blending British and Hollywood actors, before he later moved into bigger studio fare such as Sherlock Holmes in 2009.