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are betraying each other – all that has to be
plotted carefully, where they all are in the
room is very specific. There was a lot of
planning that went into it.”
Part of that planning involved Wheatley
constructing a version of the set using
Minecraft. “That was really helpful because
you can walk around inside it and see how
long people take to move from area to area,
how big a space you really need, and time out
shots.”
Sound design was also an important
aspect of the production. “We
wanted to put the audience
absolutely inside it. We
listened to other films and
realised that the sound of a
gun has been made quieter
and quieter over time until
the loudness of a gun is the
same as a punch. There are
movies with dialogue scenes
over the top of people firing
guns and it doesn’t make any
sense, because when you fire a gun
it’s so loud it hurts your ears,” Wheatley
notes. “Martin Pavey, the sound designer, and
Bob Entwistle, the sound mixer, spent a lot of
time recording the sound of real guns firing
bullets, not blanks, so we’d get the actual,
proper noise of it.”
Free Fire
has already been favourably
compared to
Reservoir Dogs
but actually has
its roots in the crime films of the seventies,
with Wheatley citing John Carpenter’s
Assault
on Precinct 13
(1976) as a major influence.
“It’s more Carpenter through Howard
Hawks, that’s the world,” he says. “
Reservoir
Dogs
sits in that tradition anyway, doesn’t
it –
Dogs
is Kubrick’s
The Killing
through
City on Fire
.
“The way of using smaller
environments and scale was taken
from
Assault on Precinct 13
,” he
continues. “Looking at that movie and
thinking, why is it so exciting when you’ve got
a scene with just one woman with a pistol
shooting people coming down a corridor, and
various characters hiding under a table while
the windows get shot in.”
Setting
Free Fire
in the 1970s also freed
Wheatley of the storytelling constraints
imposed by today’s technology. “The mobile
phone has sort of screwed the thriller,” he
notes. “Certainly this movie wouldn’t last
10 seconds with a mobile phone in it. It’s
a real problem for filmmakers. A
contemporary version of
Free
Fire
would have to have a
lot of scenes talking about
mobile coverage and all that
bullsh–t. When you think
about
Assault on Precinct
13
, they cut the telephone
lines and that’s it – they’re
stuck.”
As well as featuring his
most star-powered cast to date,
Martin Scorsese is credited as
an executive producer on
Free Fire
and
Wheatley enthusiastically recounts how the
legendary filmmaker became involved.
“I read an interview where he said he’d
seen
Kill List
, a film I made in 2011, and he’d
enjoyed it. I thought if he liked it, maybe I
could get to chat with him. My agent spoke to
his agent and they organised a meeting.
“For me it was incredible. As a film fan, to
meet Martin Scorsese was just unbelievable.
He’s an elder statesman filmmaker – the
greatest living filmmaker as far as I’m
concerned. He was just very generous to
meet me. When he first went to
Hollywood in the ‘70s, he met all
the older generation from the ‘40s,
so I guess he knew why I was so
starry eyed when I met him. We
got on really well.”
WHEATLEY'S
WEIRD
WORLDS
Down Terrace
2009
Wheatley brings social realism and deadpan humour to
the British gangster film in his assured debut feature.
Fresh out of prison, a small-time crime family patriarch
and his son attempt to entrap a rat in their ranks.
Kill List
2011
A contract killer's latest assignment becomes a
literal descent into hell in this unholy union of hitman
thriller and occult horror. Wheatley's brilliant second
film is arguably his best work to date.
Sightseers
2012
Like a bonkers blend of Mike Leigh and
The League
of Gentlemen
, Wheatley adds a liberal dash of the
mad and macabre to this pitch black comedy about a
holidaying couple with a taste for murder.
A Field in England
2013
A group of Civil War soldiers search for treasure in
the titular location. Taking its cues from
El Topo
and
Witchfinder General
, Wheatley's trippy, black and
white period piece practically defies categorisation.
High-Rise
2015
Wheatley's off-kilter brand of filmmaking proved a
perfect fit for the "unfilmable" work of author J.G.
Ballard – in this case the breakdown of social order
in a 1970s apartment block.
•
Free Fire
is in cinemas
on April 27
It’s more
Carpenter through
Howard Hawks