Oscar Isaac will thankfully return to the creative sanctuary that birthed last year's excellent Ex Machina, as the accomplished X-wing fighter pilot has officially joined the forthcoming Annihilation. Isaac joins the previously announced Natalie Portman and Jennifer Jason Leigh, according to a report from the Tracking Board. Annihilation, directed by Ex Machina's Alex Garland, is an adaptation of the first novel in Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy.
As anyone who enjoyed Ex Machina will agree, the reunion of Garland and Isaac means Annihilation should be a homerun for Paramount. The story focuses on a biologist (Portman) on a quest to find answers about her husband's mysterious disappearance, a quest that ultimately leads her to join a government operation inside an environmental disaster zone. Paramount has the rights to the trilogy, which also includes the books Authority and Acceptance, meaning this could mean the dawn of a new Hunger Games-sized franchise. The first film is slated to start shooting in London later this year, with a 2017 release currently in the cards.
"[Ex Machina] was so well written [by Alex Garland], the whole bro billionaire aspect of it, that I just wanted to get a little bit more to the idea of someone who was a savant, someone who was self-taught, and someone who had a real air of mystery to them," Isaac told us of his experience working with Garland in an interview last April. Ex Machina, which received widespread critical acclaim and crashed into multiple year-end lists, marked Garland's debut.
In related news, please peep Inside Llewyn Davis immediately if you haven't already done so:
