With a handful of today’s tentpole directors getting plucked from relative obscurity, it often means missing out some of the more interesting fare they might have produced had they not been given the jump at a big blockbuster. With that said, thankfully we’ve had the opportunity to see Ben Wheatley‘s talent grow in the last few years. After jumping on the scene with Down Terrace, Kill List, Sightseers, and A Field in England, he’s recently transitioned to higher-profile ensembles with High-Rise and Free Fire. For his next film, he’s now jumping into studio territory.
According to Deadline, he’ll be working for Warner Bros. on an adaptation of Frank Miller and Geof Darrow‘s comic book Hard Boiled. As both writer and director, he’ll adapt the three-issue series, which debuted back in 1990 and tracked an insurance investigator in a dystopian Los Angeles who comes to learn he’s also a cyborg tax collector with a tendency to kill and must save his race. The trade adds that his High-Rise star Tom Hiddleston is in talks to lead the film.
This one has gone through many potential iterations — with David Fincher set to direct Nicolas Cage at point after Fight Club — but it sounds like Wheatley would be the ideal fit, so we’re curious to see his style in a Hollywood budget level. As we await more details, check out our review of Free Fire, which will arrive on March 17th via A24, and see a new poster below.
