Having given his Tom Hiddleson-starrer High-Rise a special gala screening in 2015, the BFI London Film Festival is to go one better for U.K. director Ben Wheatley this year, with his next offering Free Fire set to close the upcoming event, which is set to run Oct. 5-16.
A24’s muscular thriller — the first from the filmmaker to be set in the U.S., and executive produced by Martin Scorsese — follows the explosive fallout from an arms deal gone wrong in a deserted warehouse in 1970s Chicago. It arguably features Wheatley’s most all-star cast to date, including the acting talents of Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, Armie Hammer, Jack Reynor, Sharlto Copley, Michael Smiley, Sam Riley, Babou Ceesay and Enzo Cilenti.
Free Fire, co-written by Wheatley and his partner and long-term collaborator Amy Jump for their Rook Films banner and their third pic to appear at the fest (Sightseers screened in 2012), will bring the curtain down on the 60th edition of the event on Oct. 16, with the cast and filmmakers expected to attend.
“Ben Wheatley’s ascent as one of the U.K.’s most dazzling cinematic talents continues with this ballsy actioner,” festival director Clare Stewart said Monday in a statement. “Dripping with blood, sweat and irony, Free Fire’s bravura filmmaking pays knowing tribute to the films of Sam Peckinpah and features a terrific cast who clearly relish bringing Wheatley and co-writer Amy Jump’s vivid characters to the screen.”
As already announced, the festival will kick off on Oct. 5 with Amma Asante’s historical biopic A United Kingdom, starring Rosamund Pike and David Oyelowo.
The full lineup is set to be announced Sept. 1.
StudioCanal will release Free Fire, which was developed and co-financed by Film4 and the BFI, in the U.K. next year.
