Ben Wheatley confirms Alicia Vikander will star in Freakshift

Ben Wheatley will begin shooting Alicia Vikander in new movie Freakshift in August (17).

It was rumoured over the weekend (18-19Mar17) that Alicia will be taking the lead in British director Ben's new project, about a group of misfits who hunt down and kill nocturnal underground monsters.

Ben confirmed the news on the red carpet at Sunday night's (19Mar17) Empire Awards in London, revealing some fresh details about the movie.

"We're hoping to start in August," he told HeyUGuys of the Freakshift shooting schedule. "We've been working at it for a good few years now and it's finally coming through."

Freakshift will come hot on the heels of the director's latest movie, shootout gun fest Free Fire, featuring Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy and Armie Hammer.

Ben was at the ceremony, held in Camden's famous Roundhouse venue in the British capital, as his 2015 film High Rise was nominated for the Best British Film award. The sci-fi thriller, which stars Tom Hiddleston, Sienna Miller and Luke Evans, lost out to I, Daniel Blake, but filmmaker Ben explained that just being nominated was a big boost for him.

"The Empire (Awards) are brilliant because it's kind of like the backstop for awards," he mused. "It's always good to be acknowledged for awards, and it's always good for Empire stuff because it's voted or by the readership, and that's more important in a way.

"It's the purest (awards show) in that respect."

High Rise star Tom was also in attendance, picking up the evening's Empire Hero award.

Free Fire begins hitting cinemas from 31 March (17).