You never know what you'll find tucked away at the bottom of an interview and today it is the news that Hardware and Dust Devil director Richard Stanley has come on board as a writer for Vincenzo Natali's adaptation of JG Ballard's High Rise. Here are the relevant bits from an interview with Natali over at Bleeding Cool:
Richard's writing a draft right now ... for years I had worked on High Rise myself, pretty much alone. At one point Rudy Wurlitzer had written a draft, He's quite a well known screen writer. That hadn't really worked out, and at a certain point, I just felt tapped out. So Jeremy Thomas suggested Richard who he had worked with in the past, so Richard's come in and he's really injected new blood into it. I think we're going to nail it, I think it's going to be great.
Those familiar with Stanley's work know why this is a remarkably good idea. Those who aren't will hopefully find out soon enough. As for the source material itself, here's the synopsis from Amazon:
Tunnels - simultaneously. First one to get a finished script and financing in place gets made first. Write fast, Richard.
Richard's writing a draft right now ... for years I had worked on High Rise myself, pretty much alone. At one point Rudy Wurlitzer had written a draft, He's quite a well known screen writer. That hadn't really worked out, and at a certain point, I just felt tapped out. So Jeremy Thomas suggested Richard who he had worked with in the past, so Richard's come in and he's really injected new blood into it. I think we're going to nail it, I think it's going to be great.
Those familiar with Stanley's work know why this is a remarkably good idea. Those who aren't will hopefully find out soon enough. As for the source material itself, here's the synopsis from Amazon:
Natali is currently in development on three projects - High Rise, Neuromancer andFrom the author of the Sunday Times bestseller Cocaine Nights comes an acclaimed backlist title -- the unnerving tale of life in a modern tower block running out of control -- now reissued in new cover style. Within the concealing walls of an elegant forty-storey tower block, the affluent tenants are hell-bent on an orgy of destruction. Cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on 'enemy' floors and the once-luxurious amenities become an arena for technological mayhem! In this classic visionary tale, human society slips into violent reverse as the inhabitants of the high-rise, driven by primal urges, recreate a world ruled by the laws of the jungle.
Tunnels - simultaneously. First one to get a finished script and financing in place gets made first. Write fast, Richard.
Sounds like Cronenberg territory as well.
Looking forward to this, immensely.
They should let Hisayasu Sato make his English language debut with this. You know typing that I was joking, but now that I think about it, that would be so awesome.
Fucking yes. Too long have we been without Stanley's creative insanity.