the ben wheatley/amy jump thread

Seems necessary.

Watching Kill List

Sightseers>Kill List>A Field in England. They are all good though.

Looking forward to his Doctor Who episodes.

Haha waht

He comes from a Brit TV background and is directing the first two episodes of the new Doctor Who season:

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2013/oct/15/ben-wheatley-doctor-who-five-things

More looking forward to his High Rise adaptation, tbh

another ben wheatley thread here:
ben wheatley - kill list

More looking forward to his High Rise adaptation, tbh

― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler)

Not heard about this, sounds great.

Reece Shearsmith is in it I believe

and Elizabeth Moss!

Tom Hiddlestone too apparently.

baloo baloo
baloo baloo
baloo baloo lu lee lee lu
the field in england sdtk is seriously in my head
who is jim williams? has he done other stuff? he is not easy to google imo.

Sightseers was p good, not quite as absorbing as Field or Kill List.

I loved Sightseers!
I can't wait to see whatever's next even though each time the more recognizable famous ppl there are, the less likely i am to truly enjoy it.

well I don't recognize any of these people so no problem for me! Sightseers was fine, it just wasn't as striking to me as the other two

felt like a smaller-stakes film is all, the conventions it was playing with were less resonant for me

Sightseers is great! Down Terrace is his first film and was made with quite a small budget, and that deals with a murderous bunch of Brighton gangsters, but there's also this sussex folk song element woven into it - feels like all his films tap into this same subcurrent of atavistic violence in some way.

Down Terrace is a real street here btw, made it into the local paper here only the other day in fact:
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/11352302.Man_jailed_after_violent_attack_on__obnoxious__unwanted_guest/

i haven't seen kill list yet
so i have at least that to look forward to
sussex folk song element woven into it - feels like all his films tap into this same subcurrent of atavistic violence in some way.
yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees

but srsly will SOMEONE tell me about jim williams?
listen to this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW39fmmQEmc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6gaBc-O_4A

who is he
where did he come from
what does he do all day
what else has he done
these are merely some of the questions i have for jim williams

ok i watched 1 min of that and didn't want to spoil any more of the movie -- looks great!

for me it's kill list>down terrace>sightseers but please keep in mind those are minor tiny greater than signs, i think all of them are great to really great honestly. gotta get myself in the right awake mindframe for field in england before i watch it

the youtube for the complete soundtrack only has 262 views
and it's like
SO GOOD
i don't know how to describe it -- it's like evocative dark atmospheric synth sounds with more organic sounds too, baloo my boy (2x), other parts are heavy, super slow, a few melodies, i dunno
i posted it in the popol vuh thread because i think it would appeal to vuh fans but not because it sounds esp like pv

who is jim williams?!

oh! and there is one comment on youtube from "steven smith" (steven r smith?) that reads "yes"

i have a lot of questions

http://www.afieldinengland.com/masterclass/people/james-williams/

http://www.15questions.net/interview/fifteen-questions-interview-jim-williams/page-1/

you guys are mean

weird that first link doesnt work but its totally legit wtf

let me try here

success! click that link for info

haha sorry, I don't know why that link doesn't work!

hey i can be a drip sometimes, nbd
and thx for some answers

i wonder if there is a collected works of james jim williams

love this part

Ben Wheatley: We try and imagine that the film is split into two halves and the first half is period instruments that the characters might be able to play or that their friends might own.

Jim Williams: What Ben suggested was could we have one small thing as if they could play the instruments themselves so that there be a small band of simple instruments and then to expand it into more of a psychedelic electronic thing.

Ben Wheatley: Once they cross over the mushroom circle, everything will be much bigger and synth-ier and kind of more electronic and booming and more like the sound of inside your body rather than a kind of diluted musical score.

watched a field in england last night. I loved sightseers and liked kill list a lot but this was on another level. Immediately upon finishing I went back and watched the first 25 minutes again while annoying La Lechera with messages about the movie. So much to chew on and like.

I felt pretty convinced this is supposed to be like ye olde english Mystery Play where the characters are not people at all but virtues, jostling about in the self. But in the cold light of saturday maybe I'm wrong. It gave me that feeling v strongly though. Accentuated by the greenawayish hyper-formalized moments where they would be in tableaux vivants and the way new sections would be kind of signaled by sudden gong or bell sounds like in a monastery ringing the different phases of the day (starting with the shell giving the scholar tinnitus).

IDK I never felt that these were characters with lives before and after the story, they seem like allegorical items to me (this is not meant at all to be pejorative btw).

I want to know more about Amy Jump. She has no interviews online that I can find. I will probably watch some of the copious process videos they released about the movie today. Wheatley says he wrote the movie a bunch of times over years and gave up and she took it and totally rewrote it based on her own ideas and research.

I have some eMusic credits left; the OST will be mine today.

I need to go rewatch this movie. I found it quite frustrating at the time.

Like peoples reactions to it like Jon's above are intriguing. I certainly wasn't ready for that type of movie on the back of the other Wheatley movie I've seen (although there are parallels in terms of folklore and so on just a complete 180 in terms of style I thought)

I want to know more about Amy Jump. She has no interviews online that I can find.

She's Wheatley's partner, and they do a joint commentary track on the Kill List DVD

I just happened to see this again last night. One of my favourite films of the last few years. Certainly one of the most beautiful films of recent times.

Did anyone get the very limited vinyl-only release of the sightseers OST? I am very grumpy that I can't buy it as a download like the Field album.

I really like everything he's done. Very excited about High Rise.

I mean the four films. Never seen any of his TV work for hire so can't comment on that.

Watched Kill List tonight because of this thread. Liked it. The whole movie to me seems to be about violence and the ways we process it and categorize it. (A lot like The End of Violence.) It's not any accident that the three institutions represented -- church/scholars/politics -- are the three that provide the needed blessing/justification/legal cover for institutional violence in warfare. And the ending (SPOILER) is just a re-enactment of Abraham and Isaac, without the last-minute reprieve. It's not even as bad as the Bible, because he doesn't know he's killing his own child. It's a parable of sacred violence.

Want to see more of his/their stuff.

And the particular intensity of the violence against the librarian was interesting -- the idea that documenting and archiving was somehow the worst offense. In this case it was for pleasure, but I think the snuff-film thing was a bit of a red herring. It was more that someone had seen him and written him down -- as if there's something inherently sadistic in the knowledge.

re-watched A Field in England the other night, so great. The faerie circle/magical curse angle makes more and more sense (esp since I endeavored to pay closer attention to some of the dialogue this time around). It seems clear that Whitehead essentially swaps places with/becomes O'Neill - Cutler, as O'Neill's "familiar" (more or less) is released/freed when O'Neill kills him (O'Neill makes a crack at one point that the only way out for Cutler will be death), and is replaced by Jacob, who assumes his role in the end.

In one of the banner deals to go down at the 2015 Berlin Fest, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA) has acquired a clutch of territories including Australia/New Zealand, Latin America, Scandinavia, Spain, Eastern Europe and select other markets on Ben Wheatley’s upcoming action thriller “Free Fire.”

Executive produced by Martin Scorsese, the latest from one of the most-talked up of young British talents features a cast led by Luke Evans, Armie Hammer, Cillian Murphy and Olivia Wilde.

“Free Fire” tells the story of the aftermath of a gun deal gone horribly wrong.

Studiocanal has U.K. rights to the film, Protagonist Pictures is selling international and WME Global is handling its U.S. domestic sale.

The first film from Wheatley to be set in the U.S., “Free Fire” is scheduled for a spring start.

http://www.criterion.com/explore/234-ben-wheatley-s-top-10

I've seen The Ascent in a really bad copy - even so it was a powerful experience.

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/toronto-film-festival-platform-lineup-1201569157/

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-toronto-high-rise-20150912-story.html

the reviews aren't great

still, Portishead doing ABBA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRBeZGYisLg&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYmY2tBYins

Don't know what to make of Love On a Real Train usage.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CbU9sFuWwAAwwIj.jpg

Aw man (squints at credits) they didn't use their usual composer, they have Clint mansell on this. That's disappointing.

Bummer

I saw Ben the other day going into a comic store in Brighton, wanted to say hi but nerd-mobbing film guys that's not me

Liked this, especially the scenes that faded into each other.

this was kind of extremely tedious tbh

film fan mate of mine said it was 'fucking awful'

smdh

all of you go and join xyawnzzzz in the pure cinema corner

Watched A Field in England not long ago. My wife fell asleep at some point and woke up maybe 25 minutes later and after trying to follow it said, "I'll have to watch this again, I have no idea what's going on." I assured her that staying awake would make no difference. We both enjoyed the film, but it was one of the most disorienting movies I've ever seen. Every time I thought I had a handle on it, it slipped away.

same. liked the overall vibe and look, and the film as a whole has stuck with me, but I spent most of it totally perplexed as to what was supposed to be happening. In retrospect, I suppose it achieves the 'dream logic' thing really well, as that's exactly how I feel about it - like a dream I had a few nights ago about which I only remember a few things.

Relax Louie. The new Stone Roses album will be here soon.

not much High Rise chat ITT. saw it the other day. people who've read the book said they were disappointed. I, on the other hand, haven't read the book and bloody loved it. I especially liked the set. a hyper-stylised 70s (denimpunk?). some found it tonally inconsistent but I thought the macabre humour worked well a lot of the time.

there was a lot of High Rise talk here ben wheatley - kill list

I'm another not read/loved. Can we find a read/loved?

I'm sure if we look hard enough we can find a not seen/hates

read/not loved

it ends with a fucking fall song

more reasons to not see/hate

hi

tension line step down

Thought there was a Portishead cover of SOS but didn't make soundtrack.

Oh there definitely was that

Sorry I meant there released soundtrack.

I hated Sightseers and was barely whelmed by A Field in England, which was a movie I actually wanted to love - because of it's themes and it looked stylistically interesting. It can't be that controversial an opinion to say that you haven't got much enthusiasm for High Rise, if you thought that their previous stuff was overrated hack shit. Oh and Tim Hiddlestone ffs.

Hiddleston was one of the celebrities, including Benedict Cumberbatch, Jo Brand, E. L. James and Rachel Riley, to design and sign his own card for the UK-based charity Thomas Coram Foundation for Children. The campaign was launched by crafting company Stampin' Up! UK and the cards were auctioned off on eBay during May 2014.[50]

Hiddleston is also a supporter of the humanitarian and developmental assistance fund group UNICEF. He travelled to Guinea in early 2013 to help women and children and raise awareness about hunger and malnutrition.[51]

Hiddleston is a self-described feminist.[52]

<3

Oh no, death by unusual details in Wikipedia articles.

Is tom hiddleston the dude who plays laing? I don't think I've seen him in anything before.

I only saw him in Deep Blue Sea but barely aware of this fuck as I was too busy looking at Rachel Weisz (whom I was barely aware of as she has been in awful shit for most of her life)

Will see Archipelago at some point.

btw self-describing as a feminist is not unusual at all - its like a disease, or a 'good career move'.

I like Tom Hiddleston. He is a bit lost in this mess but that's understandable.

v sad to see august old-ilx personality 'xyzzzz' regressing to such wanton old-ilx trolling

Huddleston is a very passable Loki dunno would I rush to see him anywhere else but this assault on weisz on yet another thread cannot be bourne

Lol autocorrect THIDD

v sad to see august old-ilx personality 'xyzzzz' regressing to such wanton old-ilx trolling

― And the cry rang out all o'er the town / Good Heavens! Tay is down (imago), Sunday, April 3, 2016 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

#dontCryForMeArgentina

I'm not a Hiddlestan but he's good in this

Feel like there's a bunch of interchangeable rated/hated glassy Brit dudes who would all be fine as laiing

it ends with a fucking fall song

Also includes songs by Can and Cat Stevens on the s/t, which makes for an instructive comparison with Skolimowski's Deep End - another film that (so much more skillfully) manoeuvres between high farce and nihilistic tragedy.

idly rewatched a chunk of Field in England last night, man having the subtitles turned on is a real help in some parts lol

it ends with a fucking fall song

please please tell me it's English Scheme

It's "Industrial Estate"

Eh close enough

Saw High Rise last night and it was... not terrible but not great eitehr... looked and sounded excellent overall, fine acting pretty much throughout, excellent Mansell soundtrack with a creepy cover of SOS by Portishead... definitely a better film than Crash, but I'm beginning to think Ballard's stuff is maybe not well suited for cinematic adaptation. Without his expositions behind them the transitions in the film seemed to strike most of the audience I watched with as a little preposterous and jarring and the final bit with the Thatcher speech was too on the nose. I didn't hate it, but it felt like a miss and honestly I'm not sure how it could have been made better.

Where did you see this?

Where did you see this?
--Οὖτις

Castro SFIFF.

after reading some underwhelming reviews I was actually pleasantly surprised by High Rise

Alex's opinions are pretty otm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BfNs3YOIVA

looks fun. do amy/ben have anything to do with this?

Besides writing and directing it?

This reads like a Martin Mcdonagh film more than a Wheatley!

xp oh... i'm having a strange day, sorry.

I liked David Ehrlich's Twitter synopsis:

A real-time pistol opera about how men are too stupid to have guns

I'd completely forgotten this was happening! I love films shot in a single location - hope the warehouse takes on the same psychedelic characterfulness of the apartment block in High Rise. It really really does look like a Mcdonagh film.

Loved High Rise. A little padded and muddled in the middle but a great adaptation imo.

Wigs. Accents.

Brie looks like she's just decided her character should be from now rather than the 70s though. I guess she has that much pull now.

Last night I watched TANK 432 which I was aware was somehow connected to this crowd and now I check the director was... "camera operator" on some of these? Wheatley gets an "executive producer" credit on it anyrate, and you can surely see the influence, the more abstract stuff from A Field In England and the latter parts of Kill List. I'm not sure it all totally came together for me at the end, but I was pretty drunk, and a lot of visual stuff has stayed with me nonetheless. Also nice Michael Smiley performance, and I'm pretty sure that was Neil Maskell over the speakers at the end, although he's not listed on the IMDB.

saw Sightseers last night. Really enjoyed it, although I get why some people were underwhelmed by it following on the tail of Kill List. Still, the performances were excellent and some really great comic violence in there.

I like sightseers as well as kill list if not more so.

Two different kinds of film I guess.

On one hand I think it's cool that Wheatley / Jump are moving onto more production-led stuff like High Rise but I'm sort of sceptical about this new one. Looks like the work of someone else, PTA or Tarantino or someone.

and the way new sections would be kind of signaled by sudden gong or bell sounds like in a monastery ringing the different phases of the day (starting with the shell giving the scholar tinnitus).

Jon Lewis, did you think of this or recognise it as as explicit reference to the "tinnitus" sequence in Klimov's Come and See? A sequence which similarly marks a sudden extreme shift in mental state? I think it definitely is.

I thought this film was amazing. The psychedelic scenes were literally mind blowing.

I never saw Come And See but maybe I will!

(Memorable tinnitus sequence in Cop Land of all things but I dunno if that's what gave me the thought)

Oh, you MUST See it.

my favourite film of the last few decades, possibly

Um I know it's not a Wheatley/Jump film but Alice Lowe's Prevenge is about as good as any British film of recent years and I'm scared for my safety

HIS NAME WAS JOSH

:''D

Free Fire being talked about anywhere? Just watched it, I actually found the first act more intresting than the fire fight, which tested my patience. Appreciated it as an exercise, but I don't think they really pulled it off. Some good lines though.

it's good and fun but i basically think of it as a mcdonagh film

Nah the McDonagh bros tend to have more warmth than that.

a less corny mcdonagh film then ;)

It's the one mehhh Wheatley so far for me. But I have much faith in the Wheatley/Jump machine and sure the next one will be back on track.

Two mehs in a row for me. Slightly preferred this to High Rise as it happens.

didn't see this due to to being v unenthusiastic about premise/setup

new one has way too much plot for its own good

oh that sounds promising!

lol did think 'imago will love this' several times during. personally would have liked less reveals and more people just talking shite.

not an accusation you could level at the last one

lol

keep seeing him out walking his dog. might've stopped and said hello by now, but ours totally blank his mutt

new one sounds a bit Tennesse Williams in Dorset

five on a hot tin roof

nadir might be when the word 'remoaning' is used

huh

“Last night I dreamt I went to Mandeley again”: LilyJames to play 2nd Mrs.deWinter in new film of #DaphneduMaurier never-out-of -print classic #Rebecca - ⁦@armiehammer⁩ to play Maxim de Winter. #BenWheatley directs in 2019 for ⁦@Working_Title⁩ & ⁦@netflix⁩ pic.twitter.com/OySyFfnW5v

— Baz Bamigboye (@BazBam) November 14, 2018

what a shame for the bairn

HNY Colin Burstead is on BBC2 on Sunday night.

Want to see it.

Meanwhile, you all hated High Rise but let's be real here: it's the original Brexit movie isn't it

I liked High Rise!

I watched HNYCB last night and I have to admit its the worst Wheatley yet. A lot of improvised acting which attempts for naturalism but really just ends in a messy and forced type of film.

worse than Free Fire? Yikes

I'm probably the only fan of Free Fire on here

I liked High Rise a lot. found the premise of Free Fire really offputting and never watched it.

kinda not interested in anything he does without Amy Jump tbh

Couldn’t finish HNY. It all seemed so pointless.

High Rise is pretty much a (metaphorical) vision of what the next two or three years of the UK could be and I think of it often

Free Fire was fun! As I keep saying, McDonagh but better (maybe)

well, no one can stop you from saying it

if i've only seen high rise, what do i watch next?

imo high rise had a mismatch with ballard's tone that kind of made it into an exercise of reproduction rather than a film with a statement

A Field in England is their best by miles

I mean it is, but it's also arguably my favourite British film of the last....very long time

definitely their best since sightseers imo

Kill List and High Rise also grand fare, Sightseers worth a watch, haven't seen the first one for some reason

xpost I'll go with Kill List. I'll need to watch A Field in England again though. I just didnt get it tbh

my rankings would be:

A Field in England
Kill List
High Rise
Sightseers
Down Terrace

That feels right but I'd put High Rise second as...well, it was kind of made for me

of those ive seen

kill list
field in england
sightseers

dont see free fire its rubbish

Another thing I like to say: if Wheatley/Jump protege Alice Lowe's Prevenge was added to that canon it'd be not far behind AFIE for me, it's sensationally good

I do think A Field in England is so incredible and unique that it's miles ahead of the others, but that makes it sound like Kill List and High Rise are somehow also not great and they are

idg complaints about High Rise re: Ballard, felt like that was the best on-screen translation of Ballard's ouevre and milieu that anyone's gonna be able to pull off (similar to Jackson and the LOTR films).

also High Rise ending with the kid listening to the Fall's "Industrial Estate" was chefskiss.gif

not sure what it says about me tbh, but the cosy psychopath pair of down terrace and sightseers are the two where i really feel the vibe

i like his fun genre exercises like Free Fire and Down Terrace

xps shakey why the fuck would you say that why would anyone say something like that

?

triggered by jackson

the whetstone is over there if you need to grind yr axe

idg complaints about High Rise re: Ballard, felt like that was the best on-screen translation of Ballard's ouevre and milieu that anyone's gonna be able to pull off

This is how I feel, too. (had already cut off the Jackson remark tbph bcz fuck lotr) High Rise stayed with me for a long time after watching it, though perhaps I'm easily pleased by dystopia.

I need to see A Field in England, don't I?

yes
https://66.media.tumblr.com/91d8bc1be8fbb232c80329b53a496aaa/tumblr_on55vkCANE1qcs2v2o3_500.gif

Field in England is the only one I really remember AND the score is one of my favorites of the last ?? years

my complaint re: High Rise is that it's a direct translation of the novel and the things that work in prose, from the perspective of a very level Ballard-style narrator work well because there's a disconnect between the narrative voice and the lascivious and violent things that occur in many of his stories. not advocating that the events on screen should be completely over-the-top and x-rated, but I felt like there were only a few framing moments that were truly nasty. the point is that the audience should be wondering why the narrator isn't recoiling in horror and the perspective seemed a little blunted

I'll grant that there is a generally detached, inscrutable interiority to Ballard's style in general, and that doesn't seem like a natural fit for a medium like film. nonetheless, I thought Wheatley and Jump did a good job of casting a suitably blank cipher in the lead and generally portraying the gradual disintegration and degradation of the residents as a kind of comically horrible, slow, death-of-a-society.

I mean, I liked it quite a bit! I just thought the approach could be a little different

at the very least it was way better than Cronenberg's "Crash"

strong disagree

I think Crash got all the parts right that High Rise got wrong, and vice versa, if that makes any sense

Crash is excellent. It got the dead-eyed Ballardian tone right

Yeah, Crash is a much better translation of the Ballardian aesthetic, imho - High Rise way too flamboyant and narrowly political (Ballard nothing if not a Shepperton troll who I can easily imagine being 'pro' Brexit for the lols and chaos).

you guys are crazy

well here is more crazy - based on five mins of High Rise I caught on TV I'm gonna go for Empire of the Sum as a better adaptation of Ballard too.

five minutes

Meanwhile, you all hated High Rise but let's be real here: it's the original Brexit movie isn't it

― imago, Tuesday, 8 January 2019 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol how is a film about the goings on in a high-rise building anything to do w/Brexit? Just relax you like it no need to map out a bunch of nothing to it.

I've watched a lot of film the nose is pretty good at this point.

Empire of the Sun is a great adaptation of Ballard except for the score, which totally ruins the film.

High Rise >> EotS >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Crash

and I am a huge Cronenberg fan but ugh I felt embarrassed for the actors in Crash, the whole thing was painful to watch

Are you sure you watched the right Crash?

Yeah I don't get that AT ALL.

(Also the BFI book on it by Iain Sinclair is really good, probably one of the best things he's ever done)

guess what I don't like Dead Ringers either

here are all of Cronenberg's bad films btw:
M. Butterfly
Crash
Dead Ringers
Spider
Cosmopolis

Maps to the Stars and Dangerous Method are worse than most of those (haven't seen M Butterfly)

never saw maps to the stars

Dangerous Method was v funny imo

no wait that's not true I did see Maps to the Stars, and while yes it was bad it had one redeeming shot/sequence so I gave it a pass

Οὖτις is a fast company stan

(said shot being Julianne Moore repeatedly smashing the viewer/camera in the face with an Oscar statue)

xp

xpost
v much agree w/ xyzzzz that the Sinclair book on Crash is excellent and one of the best things he's done, though he's (unsurprisingly) much more interested in Ballard than Cronenberg.

I watched a collection of Cronenberg's pre-Shivers/They Came From Within films not that long ago - they're not very good either.

I liked Madame Butterfly (think its underrated) and A Dangerous Method as well.

guys

wheatley/jump are directing/writing

TOMB

RAIDER

2

Here's your first look at Armie Hammer, Lily James, and Kristin Scott Thomas in REBECCA, from director Ben Wheatley.

On Netflix globally 21 October. pic.twitter.com/jZ5vderalT

— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) August 7, 2020

fuxake. 0 interest in this

what about my revelation before the (amy) jump

I can't think of a much worse idea than overrated horrible hack UK amateurs fucking with Hitchcock! Nolan will be at it next.

they're fucking with du maurier, just as hitchcock did

also in the same breath as N*lan = you're barely skirting a FP :P

It's fucking with DeMaurier tbf, not like Hitchcock has a claim on the book.

xpost

I'll believe that when I see it, which I will do my upmost not to. But knowing how formulaic and mediocre Wheatley is it won't be a fresh interpretation.

I don't think I've really liked anything Wheatley's done post-Kill List tbh

there have been lots of variable Highsmith interpretations, but I'd argue that Hitchcock sort of owned that one?

Horrible Brit directors of this era are such parochial mediocrities, of course he's fucking with Hitchcock!

not saying Rebecca was a Highsmith novel like it probably sounds like there!

like with Highsmith there are some variable adaptations of the same novel ranging from good to excellent. Just not not expecting anything better than shit from this talentless nothing!

im just like why is it that when directors "arrive" it has to be with middleclass period guff, always
whats wrong with the furrow that wheatley was ploughing with the lower class, the despised, the mud/blood-encrusted

I violently despise the few things I've seen since Kill List (which was enjoyable trash) imo.

I would be more interested if Joanna Hogg was doing Rebecca, with a focus on middleclass period guff!

^ YES

not too high on Hogg either but she'd be a significant upgrade yes

This website is free.

Hogg wouldn't be right for this. Mumblecore DDM? We need full roiling madness

Maybe Hogg should nab Tomb Raider 2 off them as well

Last (x) Movies you are going to Avoid

whats wrong with the furrow that wheatley was ploughing with the lower class, the despised, the mud/blood-encrusted

― glumdalclitch, Friday, August 7, 2020 4:50 PM

Just like a lot of other directors he's probably just taking what he can get. After he made A Field In England he said it was the last film he'd be able to make for himself for a long time.

...so then he made High-Rise and Free Fire lol

High Rise definitely seemed like a hired hand sort of job that a few other directors might have done but Free Fire (which I haven't seen) didn't so much?

Rebecca and Tomb Raider are almost certainly jobs. But I might enjoy them.

Poor Takashi Miike.

Wheatley/Jump def made H-R and FF their own!

He was interviewed about Tomb Raider, said yeah it was a job but one he was stoked to do. The right attitude

They might have been their own films but with more of an eye on commercial potential than they'd ideally want.

Granted, yes. Not that they were particularly successful iirc...

High Rise starring a popular dude from Wallander and the Marvel movies, Free Fire set in America with some Hollywood actors - they definitely feel like more commercial moves, relatively speaking

Budget
£6.1 million (approximately US$8 million)[2]
Box office
$4.1 million[3]

High Rise bombed

Wondering how they're gonna deal with the figure of the Evil Lesbian in 2020.

Bombing doesn't mean they intended to bomb!

True true.

Cronenberg's Crash...this is how its done:

Budget $9 million[2]
Box office $23.2 million[3]

Empire Of The Sun meanwhile

Budget $25 million[1]
Box office $66.7 million[2]

dammit etc

Budget $25 million[1]

for Spielberg I would guess that was pretty low!

hmm. not so. ehh

OK, you’ve waited long enough. Here’s the trailer for REBECCA – directed by Ben Wheatley, and starring Lily James, Armie Hammer, and Kristin Scott Thomas. Coming to Netflix 21 October. pic.twitter.com/rYRSlzN4Kv

— Netflix UK & Ireland (@NetflixUK) September 8, 2020

Lol

well that looks like utter dogshit!

starring Armie Hammer

yikes

waiting for LJ to weigh in

doesn't look hugely promising it's true. music in the trailer was a bit overbearing as well

Might have looked passable but ‘who cares’ if not for the music.

should've kept it cornish and got aphex to do the music, not that pwei tit

I guess I'm in the minority even among Wheatley fans, in that I've liked all of his movies to one degree or another. Granted, Kill List and A Field in England are his/their peak to date, but I thought both Free Fire and High Rise were well constructed and entertaining.

the godawful Free Fire is where i got off the bus and i will never watch it

think the music makes that trailer much worse. jury is out

as i keep saying though idrc about this. roll on tomb raider 2

Granted, Kill List and A Field in England are his/their peak to date

Nah, Sightseers.

Sightseers and Kill List are the only movies I'd revisit from this lot

think the music makes that trailer much worse. jury is out

― imago, Tuesday, 8 September 2020 bookmarkflaglink

Lol just say you are a fan and don't care than post this rubbish

'The Meg 2' finds its director with 'Rebecca' filmmaker Ben Wheatley (exclusive) https://t.co/K6KZl5EFgG pic.twitter.com/yX1bj1ItXn

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) October 23, 2020

weird career path

Rebecca seems to have been universally panned as a waste of time so this kinda makes sense.

Statham panned The Meg 1 as a waste of time tbh

directors gotta make a living

could be he is a hack

(nb: Statham said the script and original cut of The Meg was an entertaining violent dumb horror action film, but the released PG-13 cut was pointless)

this looks like the sort of thing Wheatley would sign onto and be happy to get paid off and fired from two years before production starts, or be happy to be paid more and get a chance to make a big-budget movie with no expectations if he stays attached

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/all-the-wrong-reasons-to-remake-rebecca?

More interested in this than Rebecca... Ben Wheatley's directed the new Sleaford Mods video.

https://youtu.be/iKcbSOjIzjQ

Everybody’s gotta eat but still...never expected him to turn into Neil Marshall.

I think that's probably going to happen to lots of directors who were previously able to do their own thing at a decent budget. And maybe Neil Marshall didn't expect to turn into Neil Marshall, no offense meant to him because that has probably always been the lot of most directors.

I was hoping that he'd get a chance to direct more episodes of Strange Angel (and that there would be a third season)

I read somewhere Down Terrace is supposed to be a dark comedy? It's horrifying

it reminded me of the Australian film Animal Kingdom from a year later. I thought that film was more interesting

Down Terrace was pretty good though

snuck this one out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Lqkfo7IymU

Where do you watch this one? I couldn't find it on netflix or prime

It says "in theatres 4.23" right there in the trailer. The distributor's website has it still running in independent cinemas in Texas, Colorado, southern California and a few other cities (or a $7 digital rental) - multiplectra here didn't get it. Major cinemas in the UK appear to be reopening next week, so maybe check the programming at your local/s?

Ben Wheatley’s ‘In The Earth’ will be released in UK cinemas on 18 June 2021

Thanks

Thanks, sic.

Saw this last night, and really enjoyed it.

a companion but not a sequel to AFIE, some overt and some implied links between the two.

Like AFIE the visual effects and sound design deserve to be seen on a big screen, at least for the first watch.

Kermode has a good review that hits most of the points I would make.

Cant tell if the pandemic premise will date it, but it added an extra charge to the narrative that might be lost in a few years.

Fun, but inferior to AFIE in virtually every regard. Still, nice to be back in a cinema!

Watched In the Earth over the weekend, and was pretty disappointed... kind of a mess, with too much explaining. Cool idea but a ham-fisted execution.

As per the Meg thread, the trailer is now out for the Ben Wheatley directed sequel, Meg 2: The Trench.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG91B3hHyY4

Just watched High-Rise and really enjoyed it. Need to watch some more, I guess.

finally someone else thinks it's good lol

i'm v glad that after tomb raider got canned, wheatley is still operating in the daft lower-budget action field now

ok maybe not that lower-budget

Lol what an odd career trajectory.

Pro tip= work back from High Rise not forwards

Heh, was thinking of going straight to Kill List.

Do people actively dislike High-Rise or just think it’s worse than what preceded it?

High Rise is unfilmable but Wheatley had a good shot at it is how I see it.

Wheatley was right to cast Hiddleston but even his blank charmlessness couldn't quite match what Ballard was reaching for.

Years ago, I remember seeing a mock poster for Concrete Island with Christian Bale, but I don't think they even began filming

Pretty sure Concrete Island is similarly unfilmable. If it wasn't for Cronenberg's *Crash* I'd say all of Ballard is unfilmable. *Empire of the Sun* kind of doesn't count.

There is even an ebook of High-Rise with Hiddelston as reader, to close the circle.

Hiddleston

this from 2011... I remember looking forward to it

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M3Vllqvqw8c/TpeH0zoEXyI/AAAAAAAAABc/oN4iR1XbreY/s1600/Concrete+Island+Teaser+Poster.jpg

if you found the right location you could shoot Concrete Island for cheap!

yeah.. i'm not sure it's 'unfilmable', but it would be like a play with a lot of traffic noise

agreed

First I've heard of the forthcoming zombie TV show (and other projects).

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/article/2024/aug/24/ben-wheatley-zombie-drama-generation-z

Obviously a very well worn genre, but hopefully he's done something interesting and/or fun with it.

pro tip: he won't have