If you saw Ex Machina last year — something we implored you to do at every conceivable opportunity — then you know that Alex Garland has a great mind and eye for making quality sci-fi. If Ex Machina wasn’t enough, there’s always his work on Dredd, Never Let Me Go and Danny Boyle’s Sunshine to seal the deal.
Garland’s next project will be Annihilation, an adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s novel of the same name. It follows the story of a group of women who take on “a dangerous mission where the laws of nature don’t apply.” The group consists of an anthropologist, a surveyor, a psychologist and a biologist.
Natalie Portman and Gina Rodriguez (Golden Globe winning star of Jane the Virgin) are already confirmed to play two of the leads. Today, The Wrap confirmed that Creed star Tessa Thompson is also very close to joining the production, which will shoot this spring.
Thompson, who previously had great roles in Justin Simien’s Dear White People and Ava DuVernay’s Selma, has likely been flooded with offers following her excellent performance in Creed. She’s also soon to be seen on HBO’s upcoming series Westworld.
For Garland, this is an embarrassment of riches. Three of the most talented young actresses working today and a few other roles that remain to be filled. Annihilation isn’t due to be released until 2017, but this kind of news could have it rocketing up our most anticipated list.
Next: Robot of Death: Our Conversation with Alex Garland
Here’s the official book synopsis:
Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide, the third expedition in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.
The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one anotioner, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.
They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers–they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life forms that surpass understanding–but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.
Exactly the kind of dark, contemplative sci-fi that’s right in Alex Garland’s wheelhouse.
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