Anything Ben Wheatley sets his mind to brings a high degree of anticipation in these parts. Throw Martin Scorsese into the mix and you’ve got the recipe for something truly compelling. So it is with Free Fire, the next cab in Wheatley’s rank after his upcoming High-Rise. It's just added Jack Reynor and Sam Riley its cast roster.
Not a man to rest of his laurels - or rest very much at all - the writer/director has moved from post-production on High-Rise and started the cameras rolling on this action-thriller, which has Scorsese exec–producing. Free Fire is billed as a hard-boiled crime film set in violence-ridden 1978 Boston. A secluded meeting between two gangs in a deserted warehouse suddenly explodes into a shoot-out and a fight for survival.
Wheatley already has Sharlto Copley, Brie Larson, Armie Hammer, Cillian Murphy and regular collaborator Michael Smiley aboard to star, from a script he’s penned with his regular co-writter Amy Jump.
The set-up sees Larson's character brokering a meeting in a deserted warehouse between two Irishmen (Murphy and Smiley) and a gang (headed up by Hammer and Copley) who are selling them a small arsenal of weaponry. The handover goes wrong - as movie handovers are wont to do - and shots are fired. From then on, it's a fight for survival.
"It’s a testament to the way Ben makes his films and works with actors that he's attracted such a first-class international cast to strap on the squibs for Free Fire,” enthuses BFI Film Fund director Ben Roberts. "And Scorsese for heaven's sake... We're very excited.”
Wheatley’s comet-like rise has taken him from micro budget Down Terrace to a splashy period action-thriller in the space of six years and six films, all without sacrificing his creative stamp. Expect this one to be a must-see. High-Rise, meanwhile, will land later this year.