Ben Wheatley on his new film ‘Bulk’: “Old-fashioned but also right up to date”
Picture the scene: You’re sprawled out in the back of a car. You feel drunk. Sick. The driver weaves this way and that, making you feel even worse. Steady on, cabbie. But he’s not a taxi driver, and you’re not drunk. But you are sick, and you know things are gonna get worse.
That’s a quick thumbnail of the opening of Ben Wheatley’s brilliant new film Bulk. It’s a cleverly structured pop culture meta-fiction. A fantastic work of art. A concoction of hard-boiled detective fiction mixed with Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass type sci-fi, a soupçon of French New Wave and a twist of punk DIY. But this is Ben Wheatley country. So you’d better buckle up coz we’re in for one helluva ride.
Without giving any spoilers, it’s the story of a journalist, Corey Harlan (Sam Riley), who is kidnapped by a henchman called Sessler (Noah Taylor). He is driven to the house of a missing billionaire, Anton Chambers (Mark Monero). Here he is met by a scientist named Aclima (Alexandra Maria Lara), who explains Chambers disappeared while working on a new Brain Collider. This device has created alternate worlds within the house, which Harlan must navigate to find the mysterious Anton Chambers.
There’s an academic paper to be written about Mr Wheatley’s films and their relationship to home, or a home – be that a field or a campervan – and parents – be that a father figure or a mother/woman who negotiates the masculine landscape with dexterity and sense. A house, or perhaps a home, is central to Wheatley’s film. Each room offers a different reality, just as a domestic family home offers alternative realities.
Bulk is a tremendous mindfuck of a movie with excellent performances from Lara, Riley, Taylor and Monero. It’s a must-see. Dangerous Minds talked to Ben Wheatley about filmmaking and his latest feature film.
Tell me about Bulk – how would you describe it?
Ben Wheatley: “It’s a kind of neo-noir science fiction movie, but it’s also like a comic book adaptation for a comic that was never written, or an adaptation of a French comic from the 1970s that no one knows or is too obscure for anyone to get hold of. It’s all those things. It is like a Bogart film, but it’s also like Nigel Keale or a Terry Nation episode of some kind of obscure ’70s or ’80s TV show. Then, at the same time, it’s a bit punk rock and handmade. It’s kind of old-fashioned but also right up to date”.
What inspired you?
BW: “I’d had this idea for a science fiction thing for a long time. I started to put it together. It was a mixture of looking at technology and thinking about old films and old special effects, and what could I buy off the internet? What could I get from Amazon to make a movie with, and what did I have in my house? Then I was thinking about the idea of a movie that was made in one room, just redressed again and again. It was all kind of mulching around like that, and then, I’d been chatting to Sam (Riley) and Alex (Maria Lara), and we were saying about wanting to do a film, and then it all seemed to come together, there was a spac,e and there was time, and the script came together quite quickly, and then we went”.
Going back to the beginning, what made you want to be a filmmaker?
BW: “I think I always did. When I was a kid, I drew a lot of comic book stuff, and I always voiced my toys and talked through stories. I realise now it was sequential storytelling rather than comic book stuff. I wanted to be a cartoonist, but I couldn’t really draw hands or feet properly, so I knew I was hitting the edge of my understanding of how to draw, and it was never going to happen.
“But I still had that urge to make stories with pictures. And then when I was a teenager or younger, like early teens, that’s when I started wanting to make films. But it was so naive, I didn’t know how I would even start or get hold of a camera or some kind of video camera, but I didn’t know what editing was, and there was no how-to stuff, really. It just took a long time.
“I went to art school and learned a bit more, and ran into a lot of people who were making films, and slowly kind of moved towards it. But it was something, I guess, I would… I guess the neat narrative version of this story is, I was always moving towards it. I was doing it and not knowing. So, in the moment, it felt chaotic, but when you look back, it looks like it was a series of quite calculated steps”.
How do you direct? Is there a different style for different films?
BW: “I think it’s there’s lots of different styles of directing, and I think for me, casting is like the most one of the most creative moments for a role. If you know the actor and you trust them, then you really want to see what they’ve got. You know, show me. But if there’s a problem, like if this thing isn’t landing or there’s confusion, then I step in and talk about it.
“I do line readings. I don’t say to an actor to think about something specific while they’re doing the scene, or the intention of the scene or something, or a way that they could move that would help the camera, maybe.
“Normally, I like to do is see what they’ve got in their minds first, we’ll have a look at that. We might adjust the scene to fit that. Then we’ll drill into specific parts of it that we might need, that I might need, that would work. Or, once we’ve done the scene in one way, then try it in another different way so things don’t get stale. I mean, directing – I always think the clue is in the name. It’s not telling, and it’s not ordering. It’s nudging, you know, it is directing”.
You have a great cast in Bulk, can you talk about this?
BW: “Noah (Taylor), he’s like a classic character actor. He could have been a thug in an Elvis movie, or he could’ve been with Warren Oates or in a cowboy movie. I really enjoy working with him.
“Sam and Alex are both movie stars. Sam and Alex have a particularly ’60s and ’70s look, I think. And they’re really brilliant actors.
“Mark Monero, I really love working with him. I don’t think anyone could have played that role (Anton) the way that he does it, with a kind of sadness, but also with the confusion”.
“I think it helps when you’re thinking of the dialogue in your head to know who the actors are going to be and how they act, how they perform. What would be interesting to see them do, you know. And then, yeah, the basic practical stuff of like, we’re all really comfortable with each other, and there’s no stress. They’re highly skilled people. The performances that they all gave for this make it in many ways. Because if it had been done in a more arch way, or that they took the piss out of the material, it would have not worked, I don’t think. It has to be very serious”.
You’re taking Bulk on a tour of the UK and Ireland for screenings and Q&A sessions, can you tell me more?
BW: “We’re touring the United Kingdom and Ireland, and we’re up in Scotland and in Wales and in England and in Dublin, and Cork.
“I wanted to go to cinema clubs a bit more and non-traditional film venues. The cinema clubs and people are organising in towns and showing and programming, and curating their own stuff. I think that’s really interesting, and I wanted to go and play at some of those places.
“I found that the touring is in a traditional way for the film, like a road show. But it’s also very pleasurable. To go and see the different cinemas and it’s really amazing to meet the audiences and feel what the film culture is like in the different towns, and who your audience actually is and eyeball them rather than, you know, just knocking off a few screenings in London and calling it a day.
“I think we’ll do two tours in the end probably because we’ve missed out a lot of places. We’re not doing Sheffield and Nottingham, and I think there’s more. East Coast places that we could go to, and probably a few more bits in Wales and Northern Ireland.
“I think that’s my scheme over the next few years is to appear everywhere at least once”.
What are you going to do next?
BW: “You can’t really plan anything particularly. I’m creative, I like making stuff and learning stuff. I’ve been doing a lot of music recently, and that’s really great, and I’m doing a lot of drawing for the storyboards, and I’m doing a little writing.
“As long as I’m moving forward, making things, and thinking about things, then I’m happy. Now, whatever scale that’s on is a different thing, and you can get cross about not being at the top of the pile and being treated the best and being lauded everywhere, or you just get on with it, you know. That’s the thing, and I think with art, you can scale it up and down.
“If I wanted to paint, then that would be painting, and that’s it. There’s no one involved in it but you, and some paint and some canvas, or to do drawing, or make music, there are no other people there. But if it’s film, then it’s a bit more involved. But yeah, I’m really enjoying myself”.
Ben Wheatley’s Bulk tour dates for 2026:
- Thursday, Jan 15th – Nickel London
- Friday, Jan 16th – Mac Birmingham
- Saturday, Jan 17th – Cultplex Manchester
- Sunday, Jan 18th – Filmhouse Edinburgh
- Sunday, Jan 18th – GFF Glasgow (Evening show)
- Monday, Jan 19th – DCA Dundee
- Tuesday, Jan 20th – Tyneside Cinema Newcastle
- Wednesday, Jan 21st – Dukes Theatre Lancaster
- Thursday, Jan 22nd – Hyde Park Picturehouse – Leeds
- Friday, Jan 23rd – Plaza Liverpool
- Saturday, Jan 24th – Depot Lewes
- Tuesday, Jan 27th – IFI Dublin
- Wednesday, Jan 28th – Triskel Theatre Cork
- Thursday, Jan 28th – BFI IMAX London
- Friday, Jan 30th – Chapter -Cardiff
- Saturday, Jan 31st – Pontio Arts Centre Bangor, Wales
- Saturday, Jan 31st – Home Manchester (Evening show)
- Sunday, Feb 1st – Phoenix Exeter
- Sunday, Feb 1st – Watershed Bristol (Evening show)
More dates will be added.
