The Verge - Nothing comes back: all the updates, trailers, and commentary for Alex Garland’s Annihilation https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/52801/VER_Logomark_32x32..png2018-02-28T16:21:41-05:00http://www.theverge.com/rss/stream/165057672018-02-28T16:21:41-05:002018-02-28T16:21:41-05:00How Annihilation’s visual effects artists created those terrifying mutant creatures
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/qaRTGoI2BdgLh0wsx358Q0P9JiE=/0x414:7335x5304/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/58856161/ANH_04023RAC.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Photo by Peter Mountain / Paramount Pictures</figcaption>
</figure>
<p id="FpKyV6">The last time director Alex Garland and visual effects supervisor Andrew Whitehurst worked together, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2015/5/8/8572317/ex-machina-movie-visual-effects-interview-robot-ava">they created Alicia Vikander’s Ava</a>, the robot star of <em>Ex Machina</em>. For their follow-up collaboration, <em>Annihilation</em>, they had a much bigger set of challenges. <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/23/17042290/annihilation-review-natalie-portman-oscar-isaac-alex-garland-jeff-vandermeer">Garland’s newest film is a heady mind-trip</a> that <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/21/17029500/annihilation-ex-machina-director-alex-garland-sci-fi">explores humanity’s self-destructive impulses</a>, but it’s also a walking tour of the gorgeous and the grotesque. The story of Lena (Natalie Portman), a biologist who joins a group of women to explore an area of coastal America that’s rapidly mutating due to an alien contaminant, <em>Annihilation </em>is full of improbably beautiful biological mashups, shimmering landscapes, and human-plant hybrids.</p>
<p id="hYAJpz">It also features one of the most terrifying...</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/28/17059970/annihilation-visual-effects-interview-andrew-whitehurst-bear">Continue reading…</a>
</p>
https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/28/17059970/annihilation-visual-effects-interview-andrew-whitehurst-bearBryan Bishop2018-02-26T14:58:51-05:002018-02-26T14:58:51-05:00The original ending of Annihilation sounds better
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3JEVCQq1ptJf6Fu8FQpoJpBYX6E=/825x0:2523x1132/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/58826525/anh_ff_023r2.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Courtesy of Paramount Pictures</figcaption>
</figure>
<p id="DLMoGl">Alex Garland’s heady, dreamlike science fiction movie <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/23/17042290/annihilation-review-natalie-portman-oscar-isaac-alex-garland-jeff-vandermeer"><em>Annihilation</em></a> opened over the weekend to a modest $11 million box office take that looks paltry compared to <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/19/17027768/black-panther-box-office-record-february-debut-ryan-coogler"><em>Black Panther</em>’s stunning numbers</a>, but it’s still <a href="https://www.inverse.com/article/41614-annihilation-box-office">about what distributor Paramount Pictures projected</a>. The film is something of a hard sell for widespread, mainstream audiences: it’s more philosophical than action-oriented, it’s distinctly weird and idiosyncratic, and it ends on an inconclusive moment that suggests a few different possibilities without explaining or committing to any of them. </p>
<p id="hyvLVS">But according to <a href="http://www.slashfilm.com/original-annihilation-ending/">a script report from <em>Slashfilm</em></a>, Garland’s script originally had a more definitive conclusion that suggested a future for <em>Annihilation</em>’s world. That ending seems potentially...</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/26/17054502/annihilation-alex-garland-movie-original-script-alternate-ending-deleted-scenes">Continue reading…</a>
</p>
https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/26/17054502/annihilation-alex-garland-movie-original-script-alternate-ending-deleted-scenesTasha Robinson2018-02-23T10:37:31-05:002018-02-23T10:37:31-05:00Annihilation is the most thoughtful science fiction movie since Arrival
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FdH5spAY0IDojeCmTqX18FL0TZ4=/0x0:7952x5301/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/58795223/anh_09225r.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Peter Mountain / Paramount Pictures</figcaption>
</figure>
<p id="HKiolr">In the spoiler-sensitive environment of today’s entertainment, there may be people who resent the opening scenes of <em>Annihilation</em>, which gives away most of the movie’s direction. A biologist named Lena (Natalie Portman) has survived a cataclysmic event. Sitting in an isolation chamber, surrounded by unnerved people in hazmat suits, she’s interrogated about what just happened to her. In the process, she reveals who among the yet-to-be-introduced cast of characters survives, and who dies. And the scene makes it clear that while some of her companions may be alive, she’s the only one who made it back to report. This framing device can’t quite be called foreshadowing: the details Lena lays out are too solid to be shadows. They’re just...</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/23/17042290/annihilation-review-natalie-portman-oscar-isaac-alex-garland-jeff-vandermeer">Continue reading…</a>
</p>
https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/23/17042290/annihilation-review-natalie-portman-oscar-isaac-alex-garland-jeff-vandermeerTasha Robinson2018-02-03T17:45:02-05:002018-02-03T17:45:02-05:00A new trailer for Alex Garland’s Annihilation shows off the weirdness of Area X
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/au8N_hOS38tFlam-lPXIV03wsY4=/361x0:1560x799/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/58562187/Screen_Shot_2018_02_03_at_5.41.46_PM.0.png" />
<figcaption>Image: Paramount Pictures</figcaption>
</figure>
<p id="Kuj0aW">Paramount Pictures has released a new trailer for Alex Garland’s upcoming science fiction-horror film <em>Annihilation</em>, showing off the strange world that an expedition finds when they enter a zone called Area X. </p>
<p id="4xsR8x">The film is based on the 2014 novel by Jeff VanderMeer, about a team of scientists that enters the region and discovers a surreal world where nature has taken over in strange ways. We’ve seen a bit of this weirdness in prior <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/13/16741798/annihilation-alex-garland-natalie-portman-oscar-isaac-watch">trailers</a> and <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/26/16936124/annihilation-area-x-shimmer-featurette-natalie-portman-watch">featurettes</a>, but in this new trailer, we see the team trying to comprehend the world they’re walking through. </p>
<p id="dlC6LP">In this trailer, the team encounters strange creatures in the zone, and The Biologist (played by Natalie Portman’s) says that something is making “giant waves” in the gene pool. Whatever...</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/3/16968898/annihilation-alex-garland-trailer-natalie-portman-watch">Continue reading…</a>
</p>
https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/3/16968898/annihilation-alex-garland-trailer-natalie-portman-watchAndrew Liptak2018-01-26T10:26:29-05:002018-01-26T10:26:29-05:00A new featurette explains Annihilation’s mysterious Area X
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/h4xHJNTmXGsojcDH8LiyaVHEd8w=/362x0:1559x798/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/58464607/Screen_Shot_2018_01_26_at_9.51.20_AM.0.png" />
<figcaption>Image: Paramount Pictures</figcaption>
</figure>
<p id="BLTQ99">One of the most anticipated movies of 2018 is Alex Garland’s <em>Annihilation, </em>a science-horror story set in a region of the country that’s been isolated by a mysterious barrier called the Shimmer. A new featurette helps explain what the barrier is — and what lies beyond it.</p>
<p id="H8rOqd">The film is based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer, and it follows a five-woman team that ventures past the barrier and into Area X, where they discover a world that nature has taken over in strange ways.</p>
<p id="azIFKp">One of the film’s stars, Natalie Portman, says that none of the scientists know what the Shimmer is, nor what has happened to the people who have gone beyond it. It’s consumed a large region of land, and according to co-star Jennifer Jason Leigh, it’s quickly expanding....</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/26/16936124/annihilation-area-x-shimmer-featurette-natalie-portman-watch">Continue reading…</a>
</p>
https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/26/16936124/annihilation-area-x-shimmer-featurette-natalie-portman-watchAndrew Liptak2017-12-13T10:06:32-05:002017-12-13T10:06:32-05:00The latest trailer for Alex Garland’s Annihilation shows off a strange new world
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/bleheA794G1-qj-Jore3xeUI__8=/359x0:1561x801/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/57965537/Screen_Shot_2017_12_13_at_9.42.52_AM.0.png" />
<figcaption>Image: Paramount Pictures</figcaption>
</figure>
<p id="ujqWK8">In September, Paramount <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/27/16354396/annihilation-alex-garland-natalie-portman-oscar-isaac-trailer-watch">released the first trailer</a> for <em>Ex Machina </em>director Alex Garland’s next science fiction thriller <em>Annihilation</em>, showing off an expedition entering a bizarre world. Today, the studio released a new trailer that shows off the utter strangeness of Area X. </p>
<p id="phE2jE">Based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer, <em>Annihilation</em> is about a journey into a surreal universe. The new trailer gives us a deeper look into the film's surreal world.</p>
<p id="3PAATO">It opens with a scientist (Benedict Wong) questioning Natalie Portman’s character, the Biologist, who asks her to start from the beginning. We then see the Biologist and her husband (Oscar Isaac) before he sets off for his own mission into the zone. He comes back ill, and in order to find out what...</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/13/16741798/annihilation-alex-garland-natalie-portman-oscar-isaac-watch">Continue reading…</a>
</p>
https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/13/16741798/annihilation-alex-garland-natalie-portman-oscar-isaac-watchAndrew Liptak2017-09-27T10:41:58-04:002017-09-27T10:41:58-04:00Watch the first trailer from Alex Garland’s next movie Annihilation
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/utN1t-4LB7Kz8G8RHjf5SBogPU4=/358x0:1563x803/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/56876803/Screen_Shot_2017_09_27_at_10.21.15_AM.0.png" />
</figure>
<p id="JraBjV">One of 2018’s most anticipated films, <em>Ex Machina</em> director Alex Garland’s <em>Annihilation</em>, now has a trailer. </p>
<p id="dSOIoa"><em>Annihilation</em> is based on a novel by Jeff VanderMeer, and it’s one of the best horror novels to come out in recent years. The film <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2016/1/6/10724006/alex-garland-annihilation-natalie-portman-vandermeer">boasts an impressive cast</a>, including Natalie Portman, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, and Oscar Isaac. The trailer opens with a shot of a five-woman team walking across a wide field and into a strange barrier. Beyond the translucent wall is Area X: a lush, surrealistic world cut off from our own, in which nature has returned in some bizarre ways. We then see Portman’s character back in a clean room, being questioned about what she saw on her mission in that world. </p>
<p id="H6qGXb">We see hints of the answer: bodies...</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/27/16354396/annihilation-alex-garland-natalie-portman-oscar-isaac-trailer-watch">Continue reading…</a>
</p>
https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/27/16354396/annihilation-alex-garland-natalie-portman-oscar-isaac-trailer-watchAndrew Liptak2017-08-03T16:05:27-04:002017-08-03T16:05:27-04:00Ex Machina director Alex Garland’s next film will hit theaters on February 23rd
<figure>
<img alt="Ex Machina promotional still (A24)" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/IDkJoO1JtMwVzCvt0-fjMwiLW_Q=/0x0:2036x1357/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/56039921/EXM_D006_00747-2-1_rgb_2040.0.0.jpg" />
</figure>
<p id="23VZqL">Paramount has set a release date for <em>Ex Machina</em> writer-director Alex Garland’s next film, <em>Annihilation</em>: February 23rd, 2018. </p>
<p id="6Acw2b">Based on a 2014 novel by Jeff VanderMeer, <em>Annihilation</em> stars Natalie Portman as a biologist who joins an expedition into a mysterious zone called Area X after her husband (<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2016/3/30/11330920/oscar-isaac-cast-alex-garland-annihilation-ex-machina">Oscar Isaac</a>, who starred in<em> Ex Machina</em> and <em>The Force Awakens</em>) returned home from a year-long absence in the same region. The film also stars Jennifer Jason Leigh (<em>The Hateful Eight</em>), Gina Rodriguez (<em>Jane the Virgin</em>), and Tessa Thompson (<em>Creed</em>). We had a chance to see some of the footage from the film <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/29/15100304/transformers-the-last-knight-preview-cinemacon-2017">earlier this year at CinemaCon</a>, and found it to be mesmerizing. </p>
<p id="gwdktT">Garland is known for his screenwriting work on films like <em>28 Days Later</em>, <em>Sunshine</em>,...</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/3/16091448/ex-machina-alex-garland-annihilation-jeff-vandermeer-release-date">Continue reading…</a>
</p>
https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/3/16091448/ex-machina-alex-garland-annihilation-jeff-vandermeer-release-dateAndrew Liptak