Privileged upbringings. Wealth. Violence and vandalism. All of these factor heavily into the mythos of secret societies at the world’s top universities, which we of the hoi polloi are steadfastly excluded from in reality but devour on film.
Director Lone Scherfig’s (“An Education”) upcoming film, “The Riot Club,” focuses on new inductees into the clandestine eponymous society: Miles (Max Irons) and Alistair (Sam Claflin), two first year students determined to join the infamous Riot Club, where reputations can be made or destroyed over the course of a single evening.
Screenwriter Laura Wade adapted the script from her 2010 play, “Posh,” which met with acclaim in London. Wade was purportedly inspired to write the tale of entitlement by the real life Bullingdon Club, an exclusive society at (surprise surprise) Oxford University. The Bullingdon Club has turned out some of the U.K.’s highest ranking politicians, and as the trailer for ‘Riot Club’ claims of its characters, “in a few years, these boys will be very important.” Despite apparent connections, Scherfig denies any relation between the characters in the film and any actual British dignitaries.
Empire and Glamour have early looks at two clips from the film, which make Miles and his buddies look like a gang of 1% ers gone mad. Viewers wary of drinking games (why?), or drinking games that involve horribly tainted drinks, should be warned that the Empire clip could be gag inducing.
“The Riot Club” is set to premiere at TIFF this weekend and opens on September 19 in the U.K. Unfortunately, no U.S. release date has been announced yet.