Tom Hiddleston is out to prove there’s more to him than Loki, as he’s signed on for Ben Wheatley’s planned adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s novel, High Rise. The director Tweeted the news himself, saying ‘HIGHRISE. shooting June. Starring Tom Hiddleston!’, along with the pic below.
Set in a luxury high-rise building, the book is almost a grown-up Lord Of The Flies, which follows a group of tenants 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. Human society slips into violent reverse as the inhabitants of the ultra-modern high-rise, driven by primal urges, recreate a world ruled by the laws of the jungle.
There’s no news yet on exactly who Hiddleston will play, but speculation is that he will either be TV producer Richard Wilder, antisocial physiologist Dr Robert Laing, or the wealthy Anthony Royal, who designed the building himself and lives in the penthouse.
Making a movie based on the 1975 book has long been a dream project for producer Jeremy Thomas (who was also Ballards friend), and now it seems hes finally going to make it happen.
