Alex Garland tells us why he loves to “subvert” the sci-fi genre, won’t make VR films and can’t get enough of video games.
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With “Ex Machina,” writer and director Alex Garland delivered a complex, thought-provoking sci-fi thriller that explored artificial intelligence, robots and what it means to be human.
With “Annihilation,” which opens in US theaters Friday, he aims to take us on an even more mind-bending journey in a sci-fi fantasy laced with horror.
I think I just figured that it was all beyond me
This time, a crew of scientists led by biologist Lena (Natalie Portman) is on a quest to find the source of an unexplained alien phenomenon called “The Shimmer.” Fans of Jeff VanderMeer’s best-selling novel will note that the book and movie diverge. That’s something Garland said he needed to do, partly because he likes “subverting” genres such as thrillers and sci-fi but also because he needed to take a completely different approach to bring his vision of VanderMeer’s very “original” story to life.
Sci-fi horror “Annihilation” follows a group of scientists who enter a mysterious quarantined zone where nature has mutated in unexpected ways.
“It was the experience of reading the book that felt most relevant,” Garland said in an interview at CNET headquarters in San Francisco on Feb. 8. “Instead of going back and rereading it and underlining passages, I did an adaptation from my experience of having read it . Continua a leggere