AnnihilationPhoto: Paramount Pictures
Alex Garland’s Civil War may be the movie of the month, but before Kirsten Dunst or Cailee Spaeny ever picked up their cameras to document a crumbling, divided America, Natalie Portman’s Lena set out with a team of three other scientists to explore an equally...
Alex Garland’s Civil War may be the movie of the month, but before Kirsten Dunst or Cailee Spaeny ever picked up their cameras to document a crumbling, divided America, Natalie Portman’s Lena set out with a team of three other scientists to explore an equally...
- 4/18/2024
- by Josh Jackson, Drew Gillis, Matt Schimkowitz, Mary Kate Carr, Saloni Gajjar, Emma Keates, Cindy White, and Jacob Oller
- avclub.com
For decades, Stephen King has been known as the Master of Horror. By now the prolific Maine author is a household name, known to genre fans and normies alike. He’s a central pillar of American folk horror and a major contributor to the modernization of genre fiction. But fifty years ago, Stephen King was a struggling writer hoping to sell his latest story to pay grocery bills and keep the lights on. In fact, notification that Doubleday would be publishing his first novel came via telegram because the Kings had recently disconnected the phone. That novel was Carrie, a shocking story of teenage power and adolescent cruelty. Like a cannonball tearing through the status quo, King would follow this impressive debut with the horror classics Salem’s Lot (1975), The Shining (1977), and The Stand (1978) followed by more than seventy (and counting) novels, short story collections, and nonfiction works, dominating horror fiction for the next fifty years.
- 4/8/2024
- by Jenn Adams
- bloody-disgusting.com
Cool air in the evenings, pumpkins on doorsteps, and Spirit of Halloween stores everywhere you look. Yes, it is the most wonderful time of the year for a certain set of us who like our weather settings left at “autumnal” and our genre of choice to be on the spooky side of things.
With that in mind, one of the most pleasurable things to do each October is curl up with a good horror movie and feel the goosebumps gather on the back of your neck. But how do you know if something is a good horror movie, exactly? You watch it for yourself, or you trust the experts, of course! For instance, the most popular streaming service in the world, Netflix, offers a cornucopia of chillers, but which are the ones that might be worth your time? Our staff has put their heads together and come up with the below list.
With that in mind, one of the most pleasurable things to do each October is curl up with a good horror movie and feel the goosebumps gather on the back of your neck. But how do you know if something is a good horror movie, exactly? You watch it for yourself, or you trust the experts, of course! For instance, the most popular streaming service in the world, Netflix, offers a cornucopia of chillers, but which are the ones that might be worth your time? Our staff has put their heads together and come up with the below list.
- 10/1/2023
- by John Saavedra
- Den of Geek
Somehow, when we weren't looking, summer was drawing to a close. It's somewhat alarming to realize that fall and winter are both right around the corner, creeping in, bringing cold darkness to us all! As the month changes over, the almighty Netflix algorithm giveth and taketh away. The streaming giant will be kicking several currently available titles to the curb to make way for more stuff, which means you better go through your queue and see what's hitting the bricks and what's sticking around. Luckily, we're here to help, breaking down exactly what's leaving Netflix in September 2023.
Read more: 14 Sequels That Truly Didn't Need To Happen
A League Of Their Own
It's a rough time to be a fan of "A League of Their Own." Not only has Amazon canceled the excellent TV series adaptation (again), but the movie that inspired it is leaving Netflix. And you know what? It's a great movie,...
Read more: 14 Sequels That Truly Didn't Need To Happen
A League Of Their Own
It's a rough time to be a fan of "A League of Their Own." Not only has Amazon canceled the excellent TV series adaptation (again), but the movie that inspired it is leaving Netflix. And you know what? It's a great movie,...
- 8/24/2023
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
“The [sci-fi] film has never really been more than an offshoot of its literary precursor, which to date has provided all the ideas, themes and inventiveness. [Sci-fi] cinema has been notoriously prone to cycles of exploitation and neglect, unsatisfactory mergings with horror films, thrillers, environmental and disaster movies.” So wrote J.G. Ballard about George Lucas’s Star Wars in a 1977 piece for Time Out. If Ballard’s view of science-fiction cinema was highly uncharitable and, as demonstrated by some of the imaginative and mind-expanding films below, essentially off-base, he nevertheless touched on a significant point: that literary and cinematic sci-fi are two fundamentally different art forms.
Metropolis, Fritz Lang’s visionary depiction of a near-future dystopia, is almost impossible to imagine as a work of prose fiction. Strip away the Art Deco glory of its towering cityscapes and factories and the synchronized movements of those who move through those environments and what’s left?...
Metropolis, Fritz Lang’s visionary depiction of a near-future dystopia, is almost impossible to imagine as a work of prose fiction. Strip away the Art Deco glory of its towering cityscapes and factories and the synchronized movements of those who move through those environments and what’s left?...
- 8/6/2023
- by Slant Staff
- Slant Magazine
Ever since audiences ran screaming from the premiere of the Lumière brothers’ 1895 short Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, the histories of filmgoing and horror have been inextricably intertwined. Through the decades—and subsequent crazes for color and sound, stereoscopy and anamorphosis—since that train threatened to barrel into the front row, there’s never been a time when audiences didn’t clamor for the palpating fingers of fear.
Into the new millennium, horror films have retained their power to shock and outrage by continuing to plumb our deepest primordial terrors and incarnate our sickest, most socially unpalatable fantasies. They are, in what amounts to a particularly delicious irony, a “safe space” in which we can explore these otherwise unfathomable facets of our true selves, while yet consoling ourselves with the knowledge that “it’s only a movie.”
At the same time, the genre manages to find fresh and...
Into the new millennium, horror films have retained their power to shock and outrage by continuing to plumb our deepest primordial terrors and incarnate our sickest, most socially unpalatable fantasies. They are, in what amounts to a particularly delicious irony, a “safe space” in which we can explore these otherwise unfathomable facets of our true selves, while yet consoling ourselves with the knowledge that “it’s only a movie.”
At the same time, the genre manages to find fresh and...
- 8/6/2023
- by Slant Staff
- Slant Magazine
A meeting of two great masters of horror, Creepshow blends George A. Romero’s macabre brand of satire with Stephen King’s darkly moral vision of the world. The anthology film doesn’t blossom out from the nihilism that marks Romero and King’s more famous works, but from audience-friendly parody and their shared love of the infamous publisher EC Comics, one of the earliest targets and casualties of the Comics Code Authority. Comic-book aesthetics dominate the film, from vivid splashes of color to animated effects like frames divided into panels and page-flip transitions between segments. With Creepshow, Romero and King stepped far enough outside their creative comfort zones to find fruitful common ground in the film’s five stories, and without one artist’s personality outweighing the other’s.
Creepshow’s five stories are linked by a through line of sardonic moralism, a sense of reckoning redolent of Flannery O’Connor’s anti-fables.
Creepshow’s five stories are linked by a through line of sardonic moralism, a sense of reckoning redolent of Flannery O’Connor’s anti-fables.
- 7/28/2023
- by Jake Cole
- Slant Magazine
My to-be-read pile is shamefully big, but that never stops me from adding more. I cherish getting lost in a good book, but a novel is more of a commitment than chipping away at movies on my to-watch list. The conspicuously titled 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered may make that stack of books to read even more intimidating, but it also helps narrow down which tales of terror are worthy of being moved to the top.
Following a foreword by Bird Box author Josh Malerman, writer Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann explains why you should trust her choices implicitly. As the owner of the horror fiction subscription service Night Worms and the editor-in-chief of publisher Dark Hart Books, she’s an unassailable authority on horror literature — even if she’s a self-proclaimed scaredy cat who rarely watches genre movies.
With no shortage of “all-time best” lists available elsewhere,...
Following a foreword by Bird Box author Josh Malerman, writer Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann explains why you should trust her choices implicitly. As the owner of the horror fiction subscription service Night Worms and the editor-in-chief of publisher Dark Hart Books, she’s an unassailable authority on horror literature — even if she’s a self-proclaimed scaredy cat who rarely watches genre movies.
With no shortage of “all-time best” lists available elsewhere,...
- 7/14/2023
- by Alex DiVincenzo
- bloody-disgusting.com
Tis the season to be spooky! Halloween, or ‘weird kid Christmas’ is coming soon, along with the shortening of days, darkening of nights and encrappening of the weather. All the long dark evenings are all the better to hunker down and catch up on your horror movie watching. We have scoured Netflix back catalogue to pick out the best horror movies. Weirdly, the streamer hasn’t actually added any great new horror content this month (unless you count Hotel Transylvania 2) but fortunately there’s a great selection on the service already to choose from. There’s something for every horror hound!
47 Meters Down
UK Only
Amidst the many modern shark movies, 47 Meters Down happens to be one of the best. This is partly because the premise is extremely simple and extremely effective. Two sisters (Claire Holt and Mandy Moore) are stuck in a shark cage at the bottom of the ocean.
47 Meters Down
UK Only
Amidst the many modern shark movies, 47 Meters Down happens to be one of the best. This is partly because the premise is extremely simple and extremely effective. Two sisters (Claire Holt and Mandy Moore) are stuck in a shark cage at the bottom of the ocean.
- 10/1/2022
- by Rosie Fletcher
- Den of Geek
Peter Straub, a bestselling novelist who co-authored two beloved books with Stephen King, has died at the age of 79.
Straub’s daughter, Emma Straub, also a novelist, confirmed the news Tuesday on her Instagram account.
According to The New York Times, his wife, Susan Straub, said his death was caused by complications from breaking a hip. He died at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
Fellow writers and collaborators have been mourning the author’s death on social media, including Neil Gaiman, who was one of the first to express his sadness at Straub’s death.
King, whose latest novel “Fairy Tale” debuts in bookstores Tuesday, wrote: “Working with him was one of the great joys of my creative life.”
Also Read:
Barbara Ehrenreich, Author of ‘Nickel and Dimed,’ Dies at 81
Straub’s first horror novel, “Julia,” was published in 1975 by Coward, McCann & Geoghegan. It was adapted into a feature, known as either “Full Circle...
Straub’s daughter, Emma Straub, also a novelist, confirmed the news Tuesday on her Instagram account.
According to The New York Times, his wife, Susan Straub, said his death was caused by complications from breaking a hip. He died at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
Fellow writers and collaborators have been mourning the author’s death on social media, including Neil Gaiman, who was one of the first to express his sadness at Straub’s death.
King, whose latest novel “Fairy Tale” debuts in bookstores Tuesday, wrote: “Working with him was one of the great joys of my creative life.”
Also Read:
Barbara Ehrenreich, Author of ‘Nickel and Dimed,’ Dies at 81
Straub’s first horror novel, “Julia,” was published in 1975 by Coward, McCann & Geoghegan. It was adapted into a feature, known as either “Full Circle...
- 9/6/2022
- by Drew Taylor
- The Wrap
When most people imagine a movie monster, they probably think of one of horror's iconic creatures: a zombie lurching in a graveyard, a vampire hunting its prey, a werewolf transforming in the moonlight. But even the classics occasionally get old. Over the years, horror films have become more adventurous with their premises, expanding the concept of what a "monster" is and can be in cinema.
Maybe the monster is a masked human being with homicidal impulses. Sometimes monsters are personifications of concepts -- like grief, rage, or the fear of losing touch with reality. Evil gingerbread cookies, a rampaging tire, or a carnivorous bed can appear on the screen. There have been some weird horror movie monsters. Lately, filmmakers seem ready to shock and surprise audiences by subverting our expectations. Grab your popcorn, be wary of incoming spoilers, and get ready to be appalled, delighted, and terrified. Here are some...
Maybe the monster is a masked human being with homicidal impulses. Sometimes monsters are personifications of concepts -- like grief, rage, or the fear of losing touch with reality. Evil gingerbread cookies, a rampaging tire, or a carnivorous bed can appear on the screen. There have been some weird horror movie monsters. Lately, filmmakers seem ready to shock and surprise audiences by subverting our expectations. Grab your popcorn, be wary of incoming spoilers, and get ready to be appalled, delighted, and terrified. Here are some...
- 8/29/2022
- by Addison Peacock
- Slash Film
Alex Garland has become a highly respected filmmakers in recent years, having directed films like the Oscar-winning "Ex-Machina" and writing genre classics like "28 Days Later." But it was in 2018 that Garland arguably took his biggest creative swing with "Annihilation," a heady, terrifying sci-fi nightmare that boasted a female-fronted cast led by Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Based on the acclaimed novel by Jeff VanderMeer, the project had an awful lot going for it -- especially since this served as Garland's follow-up to his directorial breakout, "Ex-Machina."
Unfortunately, the film didn't pan out as anyone...
The post Why Annihilation Bombed At The Box Office, And What We Can Learn From It appeared first on /Film.
Unfortunately, the film didn't pan out as anyone...
The post Why Annihilation Bombed At The Box Office, And What We Can Learn From It appeared first on /Film.
- 8/4/2022
- by Ryan Scott
- Slash Film
Alex Garland is no stranger to adapting a novel into a screenplay -- before his directorial debut with "Ex Machina," Garland was a novelist himself. He got his first screenwriting credit adapting his debut novel, "The Beach," for the Danny Boyle-directed film of the same name. He also adapted Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go" for the screen, so there's no doubting his grasp on cerebral science fiction. But Jeff VanderMeer's "Annihilation" was a pretty intense departure from the slightly more grounded stories Garland was used to telling — which made its adaptation a unique challenge for the director.
Garland's film doesn't get too caught...
The post Annihilation's Trippy Nature Was A Tricky Problem For Screenwriters To Solve appeared first on /Film.
Garland's film doesn't get too caught...
The post Annihilation's Trippy Nature Was A Tricky Problem For Screenwriters To Solve appeared first on /Film.
- 5/18/2022
- by Lyvie Scott
- Slash Film
Based on the first book in Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, Alex Garland's 2018 film "Annihilation" is a contemplative and trippy sci-fi fable about a team of scientists who infiltrate an area -- nicknamed The Shimmer -- that has been infected by an ineffable alien influence which causes living beings to mutate, merge, and casually swap DNA with each other. Over the course of the film, the lead scientist Lena, played by Natalie Portman, comes to understand that animals and plants are getting a little too chummy, and has to survive an increasingly terrifying animal/human hybrids; if the screaming bear doesn't give you nightmares, your constitution is stronger than...
The post The Soviet Sci-Fi Classic That Inspired Annihilation appeared first on /Film.
The post The Soviet Sci-Fi Classic That Inspired Annihilation appeared first on /Film.
- 3/31/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
In the years since its release, "Annihilation" remains a transcendent and haunting visual experience. Director Alex Garland ("Ex Machina") adapts Jeff VanderMeer's 2014 novel of the same name by deftly drawing upon the questions, awes, and fears of people, places and things that cannot be categorized. There's an anxiousness that comes with searching for answers in an unexplainable habitat. It's the kind of existential cosmic horror that allows you to marvel at all of the grotesque beauty of an enigmatic alien environment called the Shimmer, a place in which colors breathe and evolution never ceases. Even with all of the beauty that lies within,...
The post Annihilation's Biggest Scare Was Just as Terrifying Behind the Scenes appeared first on /Film.
The post Annihilation's Biggest Scare Was Just as Terrifying Behind the Scenes appeared first on /Film.
- 3/30/2022
- by Matthew Bilodeau
- Slash Film
Documentary The Race to Save the World makes the case for the urgency of climate action by burrowing deep into the lives of those on the frontline
Early in the morning on 2 September 2014, Abby Brockway left her home in Seattle and, along with two dozen other climate activists, drove about a half hour north to a railyard in Everett, Washington. The group erected a massive, chained tripod over the crossed tracks, blocking a large line of oil tank cars. Brockway sat atop the 20ft structure flanked by a flag which read “Cut oil trains, not conductors.”
Related: Jeff VanderMeer: ‘Success changes who I can reach with an environmental message’...
Early in the morning on 2 September 2014, Abby Brockway left her home in Seattle and, along with two dozen other climate activists, drove about a half hour north to a railyard in Everett, Washington. The group erected a massive, chained tripod over the crossed tracks, blocking a large line of oil tank cars. Brockway sat atop the 20ft structure flanked by a flag which read “Cut oil trains, not conductors.”
Related: Jeff VanderMeer: ‘Success changes who I can reach with an environmental message’...
- 4/21/2021
- by Adrian Horton
- The Guardian - Film News
Science fiction has the power to take us away—to escape, to make us reflect back on our own world in challenging ways, to fill us with awe and wonder about the beauties of the universe. There are so many science fiction books out there worth your time, but we only have room to recommend a few. Here are some of the science fiction books we’re most looking forward to in April 2021…
Top New Science Fiction Books in April 2021 The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers
Type: Novel
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Release date: April 20
Den of Geek says: Ever since her groundbreaking A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Chambers has been a powerful voice in science fiction. Colorful, creative aliens inhabit a galaxy sparkling with healing and love, “soft” science fiction in the online sense that is also bursting with ideas and thoughtful characterization.
Publisher...
Top New Science Fiction Books in April 2021 The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers
Type: Novel
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Release date: April 20
Den of Geek says: Ever since her groundbreaking A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Chambers has been a powerful voice in science fiction. Colorful, creative aliens inhabit a galaxy sparkling with healing and love, “soft” science fiction in the online sense that is also bursting with ideas and thoughtful characterization.
Publisher...
- 3/26/2021
- by Megan Crouse
- Den of Geek
Netflix is an ever-changing, constantly growing treasure trove of hidden gems and secret delights (here’s everything new on Netflix UK this month). Sometimes, a teeny bit too secret though.
Who hasn’t sat down to watch a horror movie and found themselves scrolling endlessly, either not being able to find something they’re in the mood for, or not really knowing what half the titles are, or if they’re any good?
We’ve scoured the full current catalogue available to watch in the UK now and picked out the best scary movies. It’s a mix of classic and new, and a range of slashers, horror-coms, mumblegore, monster movies and more to hopefully scratch that itch with ease.
We’ll keep this updated as and when titles drop in and out of the service.
Hereditary (2018)
If you haven’t seen this slice of trauma, the feature debut of Ari Aster,...
Who hasn’t sat down to watch a horror movie and found themselves scrolling endlessly, either not being able to find something they’re in the mood for, or not really knowing what half the titles are, or if they’re any good?
We’ve scoured the full current catalogue available to watch in the UK now and picked out the best scary movies. It’s a mix of classic and new, and a range of slashers, horror-coms, mumblegore, monster movies and more to hopefully scratch that itch with ease.
We’ll keep this updated as and when titles drop in and out of the service.
Hereditary (2018)
If you haven’t seen this slice of trauma, the feature debut of Ari Aster,...
- 9/18/2020
- by Rosie Fletcher
- Den of Geek
With readers turning to their home viewing options more than ever, this daily feature provides one new movie each day worth checking out on a major streaming platform.
In light of a catastrophe large enough to refract our entire lives through its prism, every piece of pop culture is suddenly revealed to be a nostalgic reminder of what we’ve lost or a prescient roadmap of how we got here. From movies like “Contagion” to novels like Ling Ma’s “Severance” and even video games like “Death Stranding,” the last few years alone have equipped us with a diverse and eccentric curriculum for making sense of our current moment. But Alex Garland’s “Annihilation” is one of the few recent films that actually points the way forward.
Of course, it also offers an uncanny view of the here and now, in its own Tarkovsky-inflected way. Adapted from Jeff VanderMeer’s novel of the same name,...
In light of a catastrophe large enough to refract our entire lives through its prism, every piece of pop culture is suddenly revealed to be a nostalgic reminder of what we’ve lost or a prescient roadmap of how we got here. From movies like “Contagion” to novels like Ling Ma’s “Severance” and even video games like “Death Stranding,” the last few years alone have equipped us with a diverse and eccentric curriculum for making sense of our current moment. But Alex Garland’s “Annihilation” is one of the few recent films that actually points the way forward.
Of course, it also offers an uncanny view of the here and now, in its own Tarkovsky-inflected way. Adapted from Jeff VanderMeer’s novel of the same name,...
- 5/1/2020
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Describing weird fiction, writers Ann and Jeff VanderMeer muse that “with unease and temporary abolition of the rational, can come the strangely beautiful, intertwined with terror.”1 The weird tale, in all of its conceptual murkiness and eerie liminality, braids together Irish filmmaker Lorcan Finnegan’s body of work. Finnegan’s films—made in close collaboration with screenwriter Garrett Shanley—build visually distinct, unsettling worlds. These films push weirdness beyond Lovecraftian motifs and conventions, inviting audiences to consider the precarity of human life on the planet, a precarity expedited by tilted sociopolitical systems. In the short Foxes (2012) these ideas were channeled through a narrative in which a couple living in an isolated housing estate in Ireland are beckoned by a feral skulk of foxes to join their unruly natural surroundings. Finnegan’s first feature, Without Name (2016), depicted the mysterious pushback of a forest against a land surveyor mapping it for corporate developers.
- 4/27/2020
- MUBI
Jeff VanderMeer’s novel Annihilation was adapted into an Alex Garland feature film that captivated critics but was largely ignored by major audiences. But perhaps his work will achieve greater success on the small screen. AMC is developing a TV series based on the Borne novels by the Annihilation writer, following a “scavenger in a ruined city of the future […]
The post ‘Borne’ TV Series, Based on Novels by ‘Annihilation’ Writer Jeff VanderMeer, Coming to AMC appeared first on /Film.
The post ‘Borne’ TV Series, Based on Novels by ‘Annihilation’ Writer Jeff VanderMeer, Coming to AMC appeared first on /Film.
- 12/5/2019
- by Hoai-Tran Bui
- Slash Film
In today’s TV news roundup, Ali Wong gets two new Netflix comedy specials and Bet releases the first look at Lena Waithe’s “Twenties” series.
Casting
Michael Beach (“ER”), Anne-Marie Johnson (“For The People”) and Kellee Stewart (“Guess Who”) have been cast in Ava DuVernay’s romantic anthology series, “Cherish The Day.” They join Xosha Roquemore, Alano Miller and Emmy-award winner Cicely Tyson. Also, Blitz Bazawule, Aurora Guerrero (“13 Reasons Why”) and Deborah Kampmeier (“Queen Sugar”) join Tanya Hamilton (“Vampire Diaries”) as directors.
Joel McHale will return to host the 2020 second season of ABC’s “Card Sharks,” a competition series with two players facing off in a head-to-head elimination race. McHale is repped by UTA and Ziffren Brittenham Llp. Scott St. John and Jennifer Mullin executive produce “Card Sharks.”
Juan Pablo Raba (“Narcos”), Adriana Paz, Kristyan Ferrer, Octavio Pisano, Cynthia Kaye McWilliams (“Nashville”) and Julio Cedillo (“Sicario”) have been...
Casting
Michael Beach (“ER”), Anne-Marie Johnson (“For The People”) and Kellee Stewart (“Guess Who”) have been cast in Ava DuVernay’s romantic anthology series, “Cherish The Day.” They join Xosha Roquemore, Alano Miller and Emmy-award winner Cicely Tyson. Also, Blitz Bazawule, Aurora Guerrero (“13 Reasons Why”) and Deborah Kampmeier (“Queen Sugar”) join Tanya Hamilton (“Vampire Diaries”) as directors.
Joel McHale will return to host the 2020 second season of ABC’s “Card Sharks,” a competition series with two players facing off in a head-to-head elimination race. McHale is repped by UTA and Ziffren Brittenham Llp. Scott St. John and Jennifer Mullin executive produce “Card Sharks.”
Juan Pablo Raba (“Narcos”), Adriana Paz, Kristyan Ferrer, Octavio Pisano, Cynthia Kaye McWilliams (“Nashville”) and Julio Cedillo (“Sicario”) have been...
- 12/3/2019
- by LaTesha Harris
- Variety Film + TV
Jeff VanderMeer's Borne series may be coming to our TV screens. According to THR, the science fiction novels are in development at AMC Studios for a possible TV series from the speculative fiction writer who also brought us Annihilation.
The Borne novels are set in the future in a city that has been destroyed by an evil company. In the first book in the series, 2017's Borne, we follow Rachel, a scavenger who finds a sea anemone-like creature she longs to keep, in spite of all the reasons she knows (and is told) she shouldn't. She names the creature Borne.
The other books in the series are 2017's The Strange Bird: A Borne Story and the just-released Dead Astronauts, a standalone short novel also set in the Borne universe. The latter tells the...
The Borne novels are set in the future in a city that has been destroyed by an evil company. In the first book in the series, 2017's Borne, we follow Rachel, a scavenger who finds a sea anemone-like creature she longs to keep, in spite of all the reasons she knows (and is told) she shouldn't. She names the creature Borne.
The other books in the series are 2017's The Strange Bird: A Borne Story and the just-released Dead Astronauts, a standalone short novel also set in the Borne universe. The latter tells the...
- 12/3/2019
- Den of Geek
While “Annihilation” might not have been the movie that launched a new film franchise based on the novels by author Jeff VanderMeer, it appears that AMC is looking at another VanderMeer novel series as inspiration for a new franchise — “Borne.”
According to Deadline, AMC has landed the TV rights to VanderMeer’s novels “Borne,” “The Strange Bird,” and the recently released “Dead Astronauts” to turn into a series for the cable network.
Continue reading AMC To Develop A Series Based On Post-Apocalyptic ‘Borne’ Novels From The Author Behind ‘Annihilation’ at The Playlist.
According to Deadline, AMC has landed the TV rights to VanderMeer’s novels “Borne,” “The Strange Bird,” and the recently released “Dead Astronauts” to turn into a series for the cable network.
Continue reading AMC To Develop A Series Based On Post-Apocalyptic ‘Borne’ Novels From The Author Behind ‘Annihilation’ at The Playlist.
- 12/3/2019
- by Charles Barfield
- The Playlist
Exclusive: AMC Studios has acquired the television rights to Jeff VanderMeer’s popular Borne universe novels to develop as a potential series. The books all take place within the same mysterious, mind-bending universe VanderMeer launched in 2017 with Borne, followed by The Strange Bird, and the latest, Dead Astronauts, set to publish today. VanderMeer will serve as an executive producer and creative consultant on the project.
Borne tells the story of Rachel who, surviving as a scavenger in a ruined city of the future destroyed by an evil company, discovers a mysterious creature she longs to keep despite her companion’s warnings and her own reservations. “Am I a person?” Borne asked me. “Yes, you are a person,” I told him. “But like a person, you can be a weapon, too.” The stand-alone Dead Astronauts details the fight against the Company in a spectacular adventure across time and space.
“I’m...
Borne tells the story of Rachel who, surviving as a scavenger in a ruined city of the future destroyed by an evil company, discovers a mysterious creature she longs to keep despite her companion’s warnings and her own reservations. “Am I a person?” Borne asked me. “Yes, you are a person,” I told him. “But like a person, you can be a weapon, too.” The stand-alone Dead Astronauts details the fight against the Company in a spectacular adventure across time and space.
“I’m...
- 12/3/2019
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
AMC Studios has optioned author Jeff VanderMeer's Borne science fiction novels for development as a series.
The novels, beginning with 2017's Borne, are set in a ruined city of the future that was destroyed by an evil company. The first novel follows Rachel, a scavenger who discovers a mysterious creature she longs to keep, despite her companion's warnings and her own reservations.
VanderMeer followed Borne with The Strange Bird. The third book in the series, Dead Astronauts, was released Tuesday and tells a stand-alone story detailing the fight against the Company in an adventure across time and space.
“The ...
The novels, beginning with 2017's Borne, are set in a ruined city of the future that was destroyed by an evil company. The first novel follows Rachel, a scavenger who discovers a mysterious creature she longs to keep, despite her companion's warnings and her own reservations.
VanderMeer followed Borne with The Strange Bird. The third book in the series, Dead Astronauts, was released Tuesday and tells a stand-alone story detailing the fight against the Company in an adventure across time and space.
“The ...
- 12/3/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The Mandalorian completes his latest bounty and then some in the latest episode of the Star Wars live-action series. Our review...
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This Star Wars: The Mandalorian review contains spoilers.
Star Wars: The Mandalorian Episode 3
In episode 3, directed by Deborah Chow and written by Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian finds its stride. To be precise, that stride is a lope, suitable for either a standoff or a long walk. The episode contains both lingering, clear-eyed scene-setting and several distinct action scenes, all paced well. This is the best episode so far, still derivative but entertaining, with a keen sense of what expected beats to push back on and which to embrace.
Mando has retrieved Baby Yoda, and delivers him to the Client (Werner Herzog). Mando's return to the Mandalorian conclave isn’t quite triumphant: Herzog’s beskar steel is stamped with the Imperial seal, the same one that hangs around his neck.
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This Star Wars: The Mandalorian review contains spoilers.
Star Wars: The Mandalorian Episode 3
In episode 3, directed by Deborah Chow and written by Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian finds its stride. To be precise, that stride is a lope, suitable for either a standoff or a long walk. The episode contains both lingering, clear-eyed scene-setting and several distinct action scenes, all paced well. This is the best episode so far, still derivative but entertaining, with a keen sense of what expected beats to push back on and which to embrace.
Mando has retrieved Baby Yoda, and delivers him to the Client (Werner Herzog). Mando's return to the Mandalorian conclave isn’t quite triumphant: Herzog’s beskar steel is stamped with the Imperial seal, the same one that hangs around his neck.
- 11/21/2019
- Den of Geek
Owing to Netflix’s staggeringly bad synopsis, I put off watching this movie for some time. And oh my goodness, what a mistake that was! Adapted and directed by Alex Garland from the novel written by Jeff VanderMeer, Annihilation is a shimmering star in the quagmire of recent cliché-ridden sci-fi movies.
It begins with Lena Kerans (Natalie Portman), a cellular-biology professor struggling to rebuild her life after her military hubby went Mia twelve months earlier. When he mysteriously shows up at her door in a near-catatonic state and collapses, a squad of Special Ops soldiers kidnap the couple and take them to a secret military base. Whilst there, the cause of his illness is revealed to Lena: a dome of energy coined the ‘Shimmer’ has grown over a huge area, mutating the land. The cause of the Shimmer is unknown. It could be an act of god, an extraterrestrial event,...
It begins with Lena Kerans (Natalie Portman), a cellular-biology professor struggling to rebuild her life after her military hubby went Mia twelve months earlier. When he mysteriously shows up at her door in a near-catatonic state and collapses, a squad of Special Ops soldiers kidnap the couple and take them to a secret military base. Whilst there, the cause of his illness is revealed to Lena: a dome of energy coined the ‘Shimmer’ has grown over a huge area, mutating the land. The cause of the Shimmer is unknown. It could be an act of god, an extraterrestrial event,...
- 9/20/2019
- by L Steed
- The Cultural Post
Megan Crouse Sep 25, 2019
Control's story and tone draw from a new tradition of uncanny fantasy known as the New Weird.
This article contains spoilers for Control and Annihilation.
Control is not, director Mikael Kasurinen points out, a horror game, but the latest entry in the New Weird, a genre sitting in a debated space somewhere between science fiction, horror, and magical realism. It's in this space that the team at Remedy Entertainment created the game's unique atmosphere.
The game is set in the Oldest House, a shifting, rigorously mapped skyscraper that grows diseased like a human body. It is the base of operations for the Federal Bureau of Control, a mysterious government organization that investigates "paranatural phenomena." This is also the organization that stole protagonist Jesse Faden's brother, a setup that leads to the game's main conflict, as Jesse investigates the Oldest House while also protecting it from a supernatural invasion.
Control's story and tone draw from a new tradition of uncanny fantasy known as the New Weird.
This article contains spoilers for Control and Annihilation.
Control is not, director Mikael Kasurinen points out, a horror game, but the latest entry in the New Weird, a genre sitting in a debated space somewhere between science fiction, horror, and magical realism. It's in this space that the team at Remedy Entertainment created the game's unique atmosphere.
The game is set in the Oldest House, a shifting, rigorously mapped skyscraper that grows diseased like a human body. It is the base of operations for the Federal Bureau of Control, a mysterious government organization that investigates "paranatural phenomena." This is also the organization that stole protagonist Jesse Faden's brother, a setup that leads to the game's main conflict, as Jesse investigates the Oldest House while also protecting it from a supernatural invasion.
- 9/11/2019
- Den of Geek
With the weather warming up are you looking for spring & summer reads? For those of you who enjoy sci-fi / fantasy novels, you can always get recommendations each year from the Hugo Awards... though we wish these recommendations each year leaned a little more fantasy (the balance is definitely pro sci-fi with a few fantasy sprinklings). The nominations were determined by 1800 valid nomination ballots from members of the World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon). If you'd like to be a nominator for 2020, you could join WorldCon this year.
Since this is a film site we'll start with their "dramatic presentation" prizes.
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
Annihilation, directed and written for the screen by Alex Garland, based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer (Paramount Pictures / Skydance) Avengers: Infinity War, screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo (Marvel Studios) Black Panther, written by Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole,...
Since this is a film site we'll start with their "dramatic presentation" prizes.
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
Annihilation, directed and written for the screen by Alex Garland, based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer (Paramount Pictures / Skydance) Avengers: Infinity War, screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo (Marvel Studios) Black Panther, written by Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole,...
- 4/2/2019
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Though the impeccable exterior of his wide range of multi-colored suits may suggest otherwise, there are some things in life that Paul Feig is a little afraid of.
In an episode of the Wnyc Studios podcast “10 Things That Scare Me,” the writer and filmmaker took a few minutes to run down a few of his least favorite things, some of which are connected to his own movies.
The show, which asks notable figures from the world of entertainment, science, and politics to share that title list of fears, features Feig’s list in full, including one he labeled “Conflict.”
“Actually, the irony is when I write scripts and stories, people are always yelling and being mean to each other, and I think you know, working with Melissa McCarthy, some of her characters just yell at everybody. And I find it so funny because it’s a safe way to get all that aggression out,...
In an episode of the Wnyc Studios podcast “10 Things That Scare Me,” the writer and filmmaker took a few minutes to run down a few of his least favorite things, some of which are connected to his own movies.
The show, which asks notable figures from the world of entertainment, science, and politics to share that title list of fears, features Feig’s list in full, including one he labeled “Conflict.”
“Actually, the irony is when I write scripts and stories, people are always yelling and being mean to each other, and I think you know, working with Melissa McCarthy, some of her characters just yell at everybody. And I find it so funny because it’s a safe way to get all that aggression out,...
- 12/17/2018
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
Alex Garland’s film adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s novel Annihilation remains, to this day, one of the most incredible and powerful cinematic experiences I’ve had this year. A stunningly beautiful film that isn’t afraid to showcase some of the most horrific visuals in recent memory, the film is, in my humble opinion, nothing short of a […]
The post Tomer Hanuka’s Annihilation Prints Are a Work of Stunning Beauty appeared first on Dread Central.
The post Tomer Hanuka’s Annihilation Prints Are a Work of Stunning Beauty appeared first on Dread Central.
- 11/20/2018
- by Jonathan Barkan
- DreadCentral.com
John Saavedra Matthew Byrd Dec 31, 2019
2019 was a great year for video games. Here are the 10 very best games of the year!
2019 was an important year for the gaming industry. Not only did 2019 usher in some fantastic new experiences on consoles and PC but it also marked the last full year of the current generation of platforms. By the end of 2020, we'll have both the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 in our hands, as well as the fully launched Google Stadia, meaning that the next generation of video games will be finally upon us. Did this current generation, which began in 2012 with the release of the Nintendo Wii U, go out with a bang?
Our favorite games of the year suggest that it did. From fast-paced online shooters and amazing role-playing games to zombie-filled terrors and surreal action-adventures, the 10 best games of 2019 represent a plethora of fresh ideas as well as...
2019 was a great year for video games. Here are the 10 very best games of the year!
2019 was an important year for the gaming industry. Not only did 2019 usher in some fantastic new experiences on consoles and PC but it also marked the last full year of the current generation of platforms. By the end of 2020, we'll have both the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 in our hands, as well as the fully launched Google Stadia, meaning that the next generation of video games will be finally upon us. Did this current generation, which began in 2012 with the release of the Nintendo Wii U, go out with a bang?
Our favorite games of the year suggest that it did. From fast-paced online shooters and amazing role-playing games to zombie-filled terrors and surreal action-adventures, the 10 best games of 2019 represent a plethora of fresh ideas as well as...
- 6/21/2018
- Den of Geek
Alex Garland’s Annihilation starring Natalie Portman is based on the first novel in Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy. So does that mean Garland plans to make the other 2 books into films? Evidently not. “I’ve got no objection to someone else doing that, but I’m not interested in the idea of a sequel,” Garland told […]
The post Does Alex Garland Plan to Make Annihilation 2? appeared first on Dread Central.
The post Does Alex Garland Plan to Make Annihilation 2? appeared first on Dread Central.
- 6/4/2018
- by Mike Sprague
- DreadCentral.com
“Annihilation” is the first book in the Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer, and director Alex Garland turned it into one of the most haunting and stimulating sci-fi movies in recent memory. There are still two more books that could be adapted to continue to story, but Garland has come out and explained why he won’t be the one to do them. Garland was speaking with... Read More...
- 5/30/2018
- by Matt Rooney
- JoBlo.com
Annihilation was one of the most profound sci-fi experiences to be had in theaters this year. But don’t look to director Alex Garland to try to replicate the sci-fi/horror film that critics were hailing as a modern masterpiece. Though the film is based on the first entry in author Jeff VanderMeer‘s trilogy of sci-fi novels, Garland says that […]
The post Alex Garland is Not Interested in an ‘Annihilation’ Sequel appeared first on /Film.
The post Alex Garland is Not Interested in an ‘Annihilation’ Sequel appeared first on /Film.
- 5/29/2018
- by Hoai-Tran Bui
- Slash Film
2018 started off with a bang with the release of “Annihilation,” Alex Garland’s sci-fi thriller based on the first novel in Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy. The film stars Natalie Portman as Lena, a biologist who joins an expedition group venturing out into “the shimmer,” an unknown region of coastline growing larger every day, where countless other expeditions have disappeared. Once inside, Lena discovers the rules of nature have been turned upside-down, and the answer to her husband’s disappearance is a lot more complicated than she first imagined.
To celebrate the release of “Annihilation” on Blu-ray and 4K, we’re giving away 3 copies to 3 lucky winners based in the U.S. The 4K copies of “Annihilation” can only be purchased at Best Buy, and includes bonus features featuring Alex Garland breaking down how the “shimmer” was created, as well as the film’s cast discussing their characters and...
To celebrate the release of “Annihilation” on Blu-ray and 4K, we’re giving away 3 copies to 3 lucky winners based in the U.S. The 4K copies of “Annihilation” can only be purchased at Best Buy, and includes bonus features featuring Alex Garland breaking down how the “shimmer” was created, as well as the film’s cast discussing their characters and...
- 5/29/2018
- by Jamie Righetti
- Indiewire
Alex Garland’s “Annihilation” is based on the first novel in Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy, but the director made it clear to his cast and crew during the film’s development that his only goal was to adapt the first book, and not to concern himself with its two sequels. Garland directed “Annihilation” with no intention of starting a new science-fiction film franchise, and earning some of the best reviews of 2018 hasn’t changed his mind.
“I’ve got no objection to someone else doing that, but I’m not interested in the idea of a sequel,” Garland told IndieWire during a discussion marking the film’s Blu-ray release. “I feel like we made this movie and this is the movie we made.”
Paramount opened “Annihilation” in February to an overwhelming response from critics and audiences. IndieWire’s Eric Kohn called the movie a “stunning science-fiction thriller” in his A- review,...
“I’ve got no objection to someone else doing that, but I’m not interested in the idea of a sequel,” Garland told IndieWire during a discussion marking the film’s Blu-ray release. “I feel like we made this movie and this is the movie we made.”
Paramount opened “Annihilation” in February to an overwhelming response from critics and audiences. IndieWire’s Eric Kohn called the movie a “stunning science-fiction thriller” in his A- review,...
- 5/29/2018
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
If you missed Alex Garland's adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation in theaters (read Heather Wixson's four-star review here), then you can enter The Shimmer from the comfort of your own couch when Paramount Home Media Distribution releases the sci-fi horror film on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital platforms this May in the Us:
Press Release: Hollywood, Calif. – Hailed as “a masterpiece” and “a mind-blowing experience”, director Alex Garland’s (Ex Machina) Annihilation debuts on Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD May 29, 2018 from Paramount Home Media Distribution. The film arrives on Digital May 22.
Biologist and former soldier Lena (Academy Award® winner* Natalie Portman) is shocked when her missing husband (Oscar Isaac) comes home near death from a top-secret mission into The Shimmer, a mysterious quarantine zone no one has ever returned from. Now, Lena and her elite team must enter a beautiful, deadly world of mutated landscapes and creatures, to...
Press Release: Hollywood, Calif. – Hailed as “a masterpiece” and “a mind-blowing experience”, director Alex Garland’s (Ex Machina) Annihilation debuts on Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD May 29, 2018 from Paramount Home Media Distribution. The film arrives on Digital May 22.
Biologist and former soldier Lena (Academy Award® winner* Natalie Portman) is shocked when her missing husband (Oscar Isaac) comes home near death from a top-secret mission into The Shimmer, a mysterious quarantine zone no one has ever returned from. Now, Lena and her elite team must enter a beautiful, deadly world of mutated landscapes and creatures, to...
- 4/17/2018
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
The brainy 47-year-old son of a British political cartoonist, Alex Garland made his name with novels “The Beach” and “The Tesseract” before moving on to a tortuous relationship with Hollywood. After Leonardo DiCaprio starred in Danny Boyle’s movie version of “The Beach” (Fox), Garland turned to screenwriting on two original grim visions of the future for Boyle and Fox Searchlight, zombiefest “28 Days Later” and sci-fi space trip “Sunshine,” both starring Cillian Murphy, followed by 2012 comic-book flop “Dredd” (Lionsgate).
Backed by Focus Features, Garland’s stunning directorial debut “Ex Machina,” a tense sci-fi three-hander starring Oscar Isaac as a genius robot designer, Alicia Vikander as his wily femme bot, and Domnhall Gleeson as the gullible man who falls for her, was inexplicably rejected for theatrical release and was taken on by A24. Focus president Peter Schlessel lost his job when the movie scored $25 million domestic and two Oscar nominations (including...
Backed by Focus Features, Garland’s stunning directorial debut “Ex Machina,” a tense sci-fi three-hander starring Oscar Isaac as a genius robot designer, Alicia Vikander as his wily femme bot, and Domnhall Gleeson as the gullible man who falls for her, was inexplicably rejected for theatrical release and was taken on by A24. Focus president Peter Schlessel lost his job when the movie scored $25 million domestic and two Oscar nominations (including...
- 4/8/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
The brainy 47-year-old son of a British political cartoonist, Alex Garland made his name with novels “The Beach” and “The Tesseract” before moving on to a tortuous relationship with Hollywood. After Leonardo DiCaprio starred in Danny Boyle’s movie version of “The Beach” (Fox), Garland turned to screenwriting on two original grim visions of the future for Boyle and Fox Searchlight, zombiefest “28 Days Later” and sci-fi space trip “Sunshine,” both starring Cillian Murphy, followed by 2012 comic-book flop “Dredd” (Lionsgate).
Backed by Focus Features, Garland’s stunning directorial debut “Ex Machina,” a tense sci-fi three-hander starring Oscar Isaac as a genius robot designer, Alicia Vikander as his wily femme bot, and Domnhall Gleeson as the gullible man who falls for her, was inexplicably rejected for theatrical release and was taken on by A24. Focus president Peter Schlessel lost his job when the movie scored $25 million domestic and two Oscar nominations (including...
Backed by Focus Features, Garland’s stunning directorial debut “Ex Machina,” a tense sci-fi three-hander starring Oscar Isaac as a genius robot designer, Alicia Vikander as his wily femme bot, and Domnhall Gleeson as the gullible man who falls for her, was inexplicably rejected for theatrical release and was taken on by A24. Focus president Peter Schlessel lost his job when the movie scored $25 million domestic and two Oscar nominations (including...
- 4/8/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Female scientists fight for survival in a mysterious new dimension in Alex Garland’s bold, straight-to-Netflix genre-shifter
Alex Garland’s sci-fi thriller, based on Jeff VanderMeer’s novel, is an exciting, imperfect genre success. It follows four scientists and a paramedic – all female – who enter the Shimmer, a quarantined zone from which no living creature has emerged alive. With “no compass, no comms and no coordinates” to guide them, as paramedic Anya (Jane the Virgin’s Gina Rodriguez) neatly puts it, “either something kills them, or they go crazy and kill each other”.
Told through an efficient series of flashbacks, recounted by Natalie Portman’s serious, clever cell biologist Lena, we gradually learn the creepy nature of the Shimmer, itself a wobbling wall of light that looks like the prismatic rainbow swirls that might collect on top of a sudsy bowl of water, and the mutating horrors it contains.
Alex Garland’s sci-fi thriller, based on Jeff VanderMeer’s novel, is an exciting, imperfect genre success. It follows four scientists and a paramedic – all female – who enter the Shimmer, a quarantined zone from which no living creature has emerged alive. With “no compass, no comms and no coordinates” to guide them, as paramedic Anya (Jane the Virgin’s Gina Rodriguez) neatly puts it, “either something kills them, or they go crazy and kill each other”.
Told through an efficient series of flashbacks, recounted by Natalie Portman’s serious, clever cell biologist Lena, we gradually learn the creepy nature of the Shimmer, itself a wobbling wall of light that looks like the prismatic rainbow swirls that might collect on top of a sudsy bowl of water, and the mutating horrors it contains.
- 3/18/2018
- by Simran Hans
- The Guardian - Film News
Sneak Peek more new footage from "Ex-Machina" director Alex Garland's science fiction feature "Annihilation", based on the novel by author Jeff VanderMeer, starring Oscar winner Natalie Portman ("Black Swan"), streaming on Netflix March 12, 2018:
"...when the husband of biologist 'Lena’ disappears, she puts her name forward for an expedition into an environmental disaster zone, joining a team including an anthropologist, psychologist, surveyor and linguist.
"But what Lena discovers is not what she expected..."
Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, Oscar Isaac, David Gyasi and Benedict Wong.
Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Annihilation"...
"...when the husband of biologist 'Lena’ disappears, she puts her name forward for an expedition into an environmental disaster zone, joining a team including an anthropologist, psychologist, surveyor and linguist.
"But what Lena discovers is not what she expected..."
Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, Oscar Isaac, David Gyasi and Benedict Wong.
Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Annihilation"...
- 3/7/2018
- by Michael Stevens
- SneakPeek
As Alex Garland’s well-reviewed “Annihilation” steers into its second weekend at the U.S. box office, Tiff Originals just debuted a clip in which the writer-director details his motives for a beloved scene from his previous Oscar Isaac collaboration. Midway through “Ex Machina,” Bluebook CEO Nathan Bateman (Isaac) jolts his junior employee (Domhnall Gleeson) — and audiences — by joining one of his laboratory robots for a ludicrous, choreographed, much-memed dance sequence.
After adapting Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel “Never Let Me Go” into the 2010 film of the same name, Garland realized he made a “mistake,” even though he remains pleased with the final result, directed by Mark Romanek and starring Carey Mulligan. “I felt I hadn’t been bold enough with gear changes,” he said. “It found a tone, and it hit the tone really nicely, but then it kept that tone.”
Thus he included the red-lit shimmying in “Ex Machina...
After adapting Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel “Never Let Me Go” into the 2010 film of the same name, Garland realized he made a “mistake,” even though he remains pleased with the final result, directed by Mark Romanek and starring Carey Mulligan. “I felt I hadn’t been bold enough with gear changes,” he said. “It found a tone, and it hit the tone really nicely, but then it kept that tone.”
Thus he included the red-lit shimmying in “Ex Machina...
- 3/1/2018
- by Jenna Marotta
- Indiewire
Audiences didn’t pack cinemas for “Annihilation” this past weekend, but the film is already going down as one of the best sci-fi movies to come along in quite some time. Atmospheric, eerie, and terrifying, Alex Garland‘s adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer‘s novel is as brainy and it is beautiful. The writer/director has already stated numerous times that he took the story from the book and spun off into his own direction, and while “Annihilation” is being lauded for favoring mood over spectacle, it turns out particularly action-packed sequence was dropped from the movie.
- 2/27/2018
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
In the spring of 1968, film critic Roger Ebert reviewed Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The critic couldn't fathom everything he'd just seen: What were those monoliths? What was that final sequence in that creepy hotel about? Who or what, exactly, was the "Star Child?" Ebert didn't care; he knew he'd just seen a masterpiece. Still stunned and overwhelmed, he leaned on a line from e.e. cummings to articulate his disoriented state: "listen – there's a hell of a good universe next door; let's go."
That's an inexact but...
That's an inexact but...
- 2/27/2018
- Rollingstone.com
Annihilation may not have been a box office smash over the weekend, but it’s certainly a film that has people talking. Those who’ve watched Alex Garland‘s weird, disturbing adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer‘s novel have come away with questions; particularly in regards to the film’s ambiguous conclusion. An earlier draft of Garland’s Annihilation script, however, reveals a […]
The post The Original ‘Annihilation’ Script Featured a Very Different Ending appeared first on /Film.
The post The Original ‘Annihilation’ Script Featured a Very Different Ending appeared first on /Film.
- 2/26/2018
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
Alex Garland‘s Annihilation is now playing in theaters. While the film is adapted from the first in trilogy of books by author Jeff VanderMeer, it’s highly unlikely we’ll ever see Annihilation film sequels. Let’s dive into the Annihilation book sequels, Authority and Acceptance, and explain why. The Annihilation Sequels We’ll Never See On Screen Annihilation is the first in […]
The post ‘Authority’ and ‘Acceptance’: The ‘Annihilation’ Sequels We’ll Never See appeared first on /Film.
The post ‘Authority’ and ‘Acceptance’: The ‘Annihilation’ Sequels We’ll Never See appeared first on /Film.
- 2/26/2018
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
Writer/director Alex Garland recently sat down with Google Sf to discuss his career writing and directing some great films such as 28 Day Later, Ex Machina, Sunshine and Dredd as well as latest film, Annihilation.
Based on Jeff VanderMeer’s best-selling "Southern Reach Trilogy," Annihilation follows a group of soldiers who enter an environmental disaster zone and only one soldier (Oscar Isaac) comes back out alive, though he is grievously injured. In an attempt to save his life, his wife Lena (Natalie Portman), a biologist, voluntee...
Based on Jeff VanderMeer’s best-selling "Southern Reach Trilogy," Annihilation follows a group of soldiers who enter an environmental disaster zone and only one soldier (Oscar Isaac) comes back out alive, though he is grievously injured. In an attempt to save his life, his wife Lena (Natalie Portman), a biologist, voluntee...
- 2/26/2018
- QuietEarth.us
[This story contains spoilers for Annihilation and Ex Machina]
“It’s creating something new,” Natalie Portman’s biologist character, Lena, says near the end of Annihilation.
This same endeavor towards newness could also be attributed to the film’s director, Alex Garland, whose adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s bestselling novel, the first book of the Southern Reach Trilogy, takes major departures from its source material. Like in his previous film, the Academy Award-winning Ex Machina, Garland’s sophomore feature refurbishes well-worn science fiction concepts and retrofits them to modern, largely existential concerns.
After years of being one of Hollywood’s top screenwriters, Garland continues to define...
“It’s creating something new,” Natalie Portman’s biologist character, Lena, says near the end of Annihilation.
This same endeavor towards newness could also be attributed to the film’s director, Alex Garland, whose adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s bestselling novel, the first book of the Southern Reach Trilogy, takes major departures from its source material. Like in his previous film, the Academy Award-winning Ex Machina, Garland’s sophomore feature refurbishes well-worn science fiction concepts and retrofits them to modern, largely existential concerns.
After years of being one of Hollywood’s top screenwriters, Garland continues to define...
- 2/25/2018
- by Richard Newby
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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