After giving us nightmares with the unpredictable thriller Kill List, director Ben Wheatley is going way, way back. The UK helmer already has one film in the can with the road-trip-turned-deadly dark comedy Sightseers, but now Film4 has announced his latest.
Fully financed by the company will be his fourth features, described a “psychedelic trip into magic and madness.” Titled A Field in England, the project is set in the Civil War era and follows a group of soldiers who stumble upon a mushroom field and things get wild from there. Kill List star Michael Smiley is back to lead, along with Weatley’s Sightseers star Richard Glober. The rest of the cast includes Peter Ferdinando (Tony), Reece Shearsmith (The League of Gentlemen), Julian Barratt (The Mighty Boosh) and Ryan Pope (Ideal). One can see an expanded synopsis below:
A small group of deserters flee from a raging battle through an overgrown field. They are captured by two men: O’Neil and Cutler. O’Neil (Michael Smiley), an alchemist, forces the group to aid him in his search to find a hidden treasure that he believes is buried in the field. Crossing a vast mushroom circle, which provides their first meal, the group quickly descend into a chaos of arguments, fighting and paranoia, and, as it becomes clear that the treasure might be something other than gold, they slowly become victim to the terrifying energies trapped inside the field.
Written by Amy Jump and Wheatley, this one will actually happen before his sci-fi film Freakshift begins early next year. While many directors usually launch a career in their home arena before branching out to Hollywood, I have to say I love Wheatley’s approach of smaller budget work giving him seemingly complete creative control. He adds that this project “brings together the more psychedelic elements of Kill List and Sightseers and weaves in our take on Historical drama.” Yep, put this one near the top of my most-anticipated.
Production kicks off this month.
Are you looking forward to the next film from Wheatley?