Ben Wheatley talks Freakshift

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When we heard Total Film favourite Ben Wheatley was in the early stages of prepping a film called Freakshift, describing it as “Hill Street Blues with monsters,” we simply had to pay him a visit to get more information.

So, after helping Ben out on a test footage shoot, we asked him to expand on that Hill Street Blues comparison…

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“It's got that interplay and banter and emotional stuff that’s done so brilliantly in Hill Street Blues . And it involves the teams of people and the professionalism and all those things that are great about cop shows, but with monsters and lots of genre-action.”

But cop shows aren’t the only influence on Freakshift . “It’s also a mix of my favourite video-games. Doom especially, which is why I’ve got our leads running around with pump-action shotguns – which they use copiously.”

So with all these shotguns flying around, will it be an 18? “No, because all the violence is all on-creature."

“But it will have a Paul Verhoeveny-vibe to it – it’s going to have a satirical edge. It’s not going to be harrowing like Kill List , but it’s going to be tense. Tense and actiony.””

So, you’re excited? “Fucking yeah!”

We’re not surprised. Hill Street Blues meets Doom via RoboCop ? We’re pretty excited too.