Wheatley adapting satirical sci-fi novel.
British filmmaker Ben Wheatley (‘Kill List,’ ‘Sightseers’) has signed on to take the director’s chair for a film adaptation of JG Ballard’s 1975 satirical novel ‘High Rise,’ reports Screen Daily.
Set in a luxury high-rise building, Ballard’s book follows “a group of affluent tenants hell-bent on an orgy of destruction. Cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on ‘enemy’ floors and the once-luxurious amenities become an arena for technological mayhem. Human society slips into violent reverse as the inhabitants of the ultra-modern high-rise, driven by primal urges, recreate a world ruled by the laws of the jungle.”
The adaptation features a script by Wheatley’s wife and regular collaborator Amy Jump, and has Film4 on board as backers alongside producer Jeremy Thomas (‘Dom Hemingway,’ ‘Kon-Tiki,’ ‘A Dangerous Method’).
“I love Ballard’s work,” Wheatley told Screen Daily. “This project started out with me looking at my bookcase, seeing the book, and thinking: ‘that would make a great film’. I started looking into who had the rights for the book and that led me to Jeremy, who has made some of my favourite films. It took me a few meetings just to get over the typewriter he has from ‘Naked Lunch’ in his office.”