Tom Hiddleston Moves Into Wheatley's "High Rise"

Director Ben Wheatley ("Kill List," "Sightseers") took to Twitter to announce that Tom Hiddleston will star in the film adaptation of author J. G. Ballard's 1975 satirical novel "High Rise".

Ballard also wrote the book that was turned into Steven Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun" and the novel that became David Cronenberg's "Crash".

Set in a luxury ultra-modern high-rise building, the story follows a group of affluent tenants who revert to barbarism. Cocktail parties degenerate into attacks on 'enemy' floors and once-luxurious amenities become an arena for primal and violent mayhem.

 Producer Jeremy Thomas has been trying to get a film adaptation of High Rise off the ground for ages. Nicolas Roeg almost turned the tale into a film in the '70s. Then, in 2010, Vincenzo Natali was going to direct a pic using a script by Richard Stanley.  The rights lapsed, however, and now a new writing and directing team has come aboard and it seems like they're actually going to get this adaptation across the finish line.

Wheatley's regular writing partner Amy Jump is writing what is being labelled a "faithful" adaptation

 Production is set to start in June.

There's no word yet of who Hiddleston will play, but Empire states that should the film stay close to the book there are three possibilities:

The story's main characters / residents are cunning and aggressive TV producer Richard Wilder (prole: 2nd floor); antisocial physiologist Dr Robert Laing (middle class: 25th floor); and the wealthy, laid-back architect Anthony Royal, who designed the building himself and lives in the penthouse. Since Wilder is an ex-rugby player we can probably discount him. For spoilery reasons, we would put our money on Hiddleston as Laing.