Award-winning helmer set for psychedelic civil war feature.
Film4 has announced that ‘Kill List’ helmer Ben Wheatley is set to take the director’s chair for ‘A Field In England,’ a psychedelic 17th-century tale that will star Michael Smiley (‘Kill List’), Peter Ferdinando (‘Tony’), Reece Shearsmith (‘The League of Gentlemen’), Julian Barratt (‘The Mighty Boosh’), Richard Glover (‘Sightseers’) and Ryan Pope (‘Ideal’).
Written by Wheatley and his wife Amy Jump, the film is set during the English civil war and follows a small group of deserters who, while fleeing from a raging battle, find themselves in an overgrown field. They are captured by an alchemist by the name of O’Neil (played by Smiley) and his henchman, Cutler, and are forced into aiding the two men in their search to find a hidden treasure that they believe is buried in the field.
Crossing a vast mushroom circle, which provides their first meal, the group quickly descend into a chaos of arguments, fighting and paranoia, and, as it becomes clear that the treasure might be something other than gold, they slowly become victim to the terrifying energies trapped inside the field.
‘A Field In England’ is the first feature to be developed and fully financed through Film4’s talent and ideas hub Film4.0. The film will be Wheatley’s next before the already announced ‘Freakshift,’ which is set to shoot in early 2013 in partnership with Film4 and Lava Bear Films.