9 JG Ballard Stories That Must Be Filmed

Celebrating the life of Britain's late, great author

Apr 20th 2009 By Sam Ashurst

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High Rise (1975)

The Star: Johnny Depp

The Director: Vincenzo Natali

The Pitch: Possibly the most likely contender on our list to make it to the big screen - it’s currently in development with Cube director Vincenzo Natali attached to direct.

But when it does eventually reach cinemas, we imagine some of the intense darkness of the book will have been subtly removed. The story is set entirely in a futuristic state-of-the-art high-rise building, and is seen through the perspective of three main characters, each on a different level – upper, middle and lower.

The building is designed to be self-contained, with shops, businesses and schools all located within its four walls.

So it’s easy for the wealthy inhabitants to decide to lock themselves away in their luxurious surroundings from the outside world.

And it’s even easier for them to embark on an orgy of violence, completely abandoning the rules of society in the process.

We can’t imagine the finished film will contain every violent scene in the book, because if it did, it would be the bleakest film ever made. And one of the most darkly brilliant.

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Comments

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- alowe
  
  Apr 20th 2009, 13:12
  
  Cocaine Nights, too, please. First shot: tennis machine pumping out balls. Pull back slowly to reveal a player in tennis whites, lying dead on the floor in a growing pool of tennis balls.
  
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- MadMatt
  
  Apr 20th 2009, 18:28
  
  Natali has been struggling to get High-Rise made for years - probably because he wants to make it as bleak and darkly brilliant as you suggest. He's a perfect fit and seriously underrated, so I hope that one at least makes it to the screen.
  
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- chris999
  
  Apr 25th 2009, 0:00
  
  By the way, it's Heavenly Creatures - not Heavenly Girls.
  
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- chris999
  
  Apr 25th 2009, 0:00
  
  By the way, it's Heavenly Creatures - not Heavenly Girls.
  
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- jargonking
  
  Apr 26th 2009, 18:38
  
  You're forgetting Hello America, possibly the most cinematic of all his novels featuring a European expedition to explore an America abandoned by it's population more than a century earlier. The opening scene of the ship arriving in an empty New York is phenomenal.
  
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