While we await the release of his adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s High-Rise, British filmmaker Ben Wheatley has announced details of his next film – and his first set in the U.S. – Free Fire, which will star Luke Evans (Dracula Untold), Armie Hammer (The Lone Ranger), Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins) and Olivia Wilde (Her), along with Wheatley regular Michael Smiley (Kill List).
“The idea for Free Fire came from my love of hard-boiled crime movies; from The Asphalt Jungle, The Big Sleep, The Killing and The Big Combo through The Driver, Le Samourai and The French Connection, to the modern cycle of Goodfellas, Casino, Hard Boiled and Reservoir Dogs,” said Wheatley. “Free Fire will take you and stick you in the middle of the action. I want the film to have the stylish, no-nonsense feel that you get in Peckinpah’s The Getaway. It’s a modern ‘70s movie. Muscular, tough and spare.”
As per Variety, Free Fire “is set in Boston in 1978. Wilde plays Justine, a woman who has brokered a meeting in a deserted warehouse between two Irishmen (Murphy, Smiley) and a gang led by Hammer and Evans, who are selling them a stash of guns. But when shots are fired in the handover, a heart-stopping game of survival ensues.”
Originally published October 25, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
