While he has had a very successful career as a screenwriter (28 DAYS LATER, DREDD) and novelist, Alex Garland's directorial debut EX MACHINA really put him on the map as a name to keep track of, which means his follow-up is one of the more anticipated movies on the genre horizon. Said follow-up is a sci-fi/horror epic called ANNIHILATION, and it comes packing a pretty special cast that includes Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac, Tessa Thompson, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Gina Rodriguez.
ANNIHILATION is based on a novel by Jeff VanDerMeer; here's the 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, 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 another, 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.
Sounds pretty engrossing, doesn’t it? Well, we now know when we get to see ANNIHILATION; Paramount has scheduled the film for February 23, 2018. A trailer should be here before you know it. That date might create a conflict of interest for genre fans, as it's also when the Spierig Brothers' WINCHESTER starring Helen Mirren is opening.
As far as I’m concerned, both films are must-sees.
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