Ben Wheatley – he of Kill List, Sightseers and A Field In England fame – is back, and for his fifth film, he’s tackling JG Ballard’s classic dystopian novel High Rise, for which a first teaser trailer has arrived online.
The mysterious 81-second teaser has no mention of the actual film. It is instead presented as an promotional advert for ‘Anthony Royal Architecture’, the fictional building firm which constructs the titular residential tower.
With a Tom Hiddleston voiceover, we get a good sense of that 1975 setting – brutalist concrete architecture, flared trousers, questionable facial hair. But beyond the cheerily corporate promo format, we’re also treated to a faint whiff of the darkly dystopian horrors to come: rotting fruit, lift failures, blood seeping into the swimming pool...
Hiddleston is in the lead for this one as Dr Robert Laing, and he’s propped up by a tremendous supporting cast that includes Jeremy Irons (as the architect, Anthony Royal), Sienna Miller, Elisabeth Moss, Luke Evans, James Purefoy, Reece Shearsmith, and Dan Skinner (aka Angelos Epithemou, Vic & Bob fans).
Having premiered back in October at the London Film Festival (a gala screening that Empire was very proud to host), High Rise appears to be finally slated for a March 18, 2016 release date. No need to start eating dog just yet.