Genre distributor Magnet Releasing has acquired Ben Wheatley’s Northern Irish shot film ‘High Rise’ with plans to release it in the US.
‘High-Rise’, directed by Ben Wheatley, from a screenplay by his regular collaborator Amy Jump, is an adaptation of JG Ballard’s classic 1975 British thriller, starring Tom Hiddleston in the lead along with Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans and Elisabeth Moss.
The film premiered in Toronto earlier this year. Produced by Oscar-winning Jeremy Thomas, ‘High-Rise’ is a dystopian depiction of a society that starts a class war in a high-rise apartment. It filmed in Northern Ireland, including a key location in Bangor, in 2014 and received funding from the Northern Ireland Screen Fund supported by Invest NI and part funded by the European Regional Development Fund.
Ben Wheatley’s next film ‘Free Fire’ is set in Boston in 1978 and centres on a meeting in a deserted warehouse between two gangs turns into a shootout and a game of survival. The film will have a strong Irish presence with Cillian Murphy, Jack Reynor and Michael Smiley all among the ensemble cast. Brie Larson, currently the Best Actress Oscar front-runner for her performance in Lenny Abrahamson’s ‘Room’, will also star.