Hard to believe it was way back in January when Eric made known the possibility of Vincenzo Natali adapting J.G. Ballard’s dystopic thriller HIGH RISE. Cut to ten months later and what to we have? A possible writer to help get the damn thing going. Talk about glacial movement…
According to Bleeding Cool, writer/director Richard Stanley (HARDWARE, DUST DEVIL) has been assigned to help pen the adapted HIGH RISE screenplay. Here’s what Natali had to share:
“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.”
Nice! Anyone who’s seen HARDWARE or DUST DEVIL knows Stanley’s material isn’t really geared for the masses, so the possibility of this being really f*ckin’ off-the-wall bonkers is actually pretty decent.
For those in the dark, the acclaimed blacklisted HIGH RISE tells the unnerving tale of life in a modern tower block running out of control. 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.
Thoughts on the Natali/Stanley partnership? Think it breeds potential for greatness?
Natali’s SLPLICE star, Delhine Chaneac!