Ahead of the film's February 23rd release, Paramount Pictures and Skydance have unveiled a new poster for EX MACHINA helmer Alex Garland's next sci-fi thriller, ANNIHILATION. Based on the first installment of novelist Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy, the forthcoming otherworldly drama stars Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, and Oscar Isaac.
In regard to what you can expect from Garland's new film, you can check out the novel's official synopsis below:
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; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died 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 months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.
This is the twelfth expedition. Their 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 and collect specimens; to record all their observations, scientific and otherwise, of their surroundings and of one another; and, above all, to 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.
You can check out the new poster for the film below:
As a fan of Garland's EX MACHINA, and an enthusiast for intense fantasy themes in general, I'm really looking forward to this one. The creatures featured in the trailer look positively terrifying, like something that escaped from the world of Richard B. Riddick's PITCH BLACK, only much worse. With any luck, ANNIHILATION will be another feather in Garland's cap as a filmmaker who knows how to make bring nuance to science fiction themes that've been a part of the culture for decades.
ANNIHILATION opens in theaters beginning on February 23rd.
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