Based on the best-selling Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer, Annihilation will hit British cinemas next year and stars the likes of Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny and Oscar Isaac. Directed and written by Ex Machina’s Alex Garland, you can check out a brilliant new teaser trailer for the film below:
Annihilation is a film that’s been in the works ever since Paramount Pictures and Scott Rudin Productions acquired the rights to the story back in early 2013, but it wasn’t until 2015 that it was first reported Portman was in talks to lead the film as biologist Lena.
The movie will see Lena putting her name forward for an expedition into an environmental disaster zone, following the disappearance of her husband (Isaac). When she’s there however, she finds things aren’t exactly as she expected. Working with her team, which includes a psychologist (Jennifer Jason Leigh), an anthropologist (Rodriguez), a surveyor (Thompson) and a linguist (Novotny).
We understand that Annihilation will be based only on the first novel of VanderMeer’s trilogy, so filmmakers will be hoping for big box office takings come February 2018 if they’re to be allowed to finish telling their story on the big screen.
With that being said, director Alex Garland did previously say to Creative Screenwriting: “At the point I started working on Annihilation, there was only one of the three books (released by the author). I knew that it was planned as a trilogy by the author, but there was only the manuscript for the first book. I really didn’t think too much about the trilogy side of it.”
Without the trilogy in mind when working on the film, it wouldn’t be too shocking if Garland ensures there is a definitive start, middle and end to Annihilation, so that if this is the only movie made based on the trilogy, it would still serve to tell the story he wants to tell.
Whatever happens, we’ve got our sights firmly set on the debut of this flick, and can’t wait to see what the stellar cast and crew involved bring to proceedings when it’s finally released.
Annihilation comes to cinemas in the UK on February 23, 2018.