Ben Wheatley has Tom Hiddleston going native in High-Rise in March, before moving on to the Martin Scorsese-exec-produced Free Fire, a ‘70s-influenced action-thriller we’re beyond excited about. After that his plan involves heading into the jungle (actual or figurative) for an intriguing take on Henri-Georges Clouzot's The Wages Of Fear. He talked Empire through his plans in the new issue.
"The main change for me is that it will be set in Africa, and it’ll have women in it!” says Wheatley. "Women truckers.” The Wages Of Fear and William Friedkin’s 1977 version, Sorcerer, were, of course, stories about desperate men. As Imperator Furiosa proves, desperate women and large lorries make a very cool mix.
Technically, it wouldn’t be a remake so much as a re-adaptation of Georges Arnaud’s novel about a group of desperate men hired to transport a shipment of highly explosive nitroglycerin across the jungle and hills of South America. The roads are bumpy, the cargo volatile and the foreheads sweaty. Check out the trailer below.
“It’s kind of bonkers to do it again, but it’s a good bonkers,” Wheatley enthuses. "We’re going back to old-school tension. They’re built around two or three amazing set-pieces, these movies, and that’s the challenge. It’s physics-based filmmaking, and something you’ve not seen before.”
We can’t wait to see what Wheatley, a master of nerve-cooking tension from as far back as Down Terrace and Kill List, cooks up for this one. In the meantime, his dystopian adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s High-Rise lands on March 18.
For much more from one of Empire’s favourite filmmakers pick up the new issue from your local newsagent or here in tablet form now.
