Natalie Portman Puts Her Head in an Albino Alligator's Mouth in First Look at ANNIHILATION; Plus New Details
Natalie Portman is putting her beautiful head in danger's way in this first look image from her upcoming science fiction film Annihilation. Portman plays a scientist, who is part of an expedition tasked with exploring an area which has been taken over by a mysterious force. Writer and director Alex Garland (Ex Machina) explains the plot to EW:
“[She] finds a very strange, dream-like, surrealist landscape, and goes deeper and deeper into that world, and also into that mindset.”
Annihilation also stars Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tuva Novotny, Gina Rodriguez, and Tessa Thompson who costar as Portman's team members, while Oscar Isaac plays her husband.
The image above is the first thing the expedition comes across that is mysterious. Garland says:
“It is their first tangible encounter with something strange. The alligator has physical elements to it that should not belong on an alligator. They’re starting to get their heads around how weird the place is.”
Annihilation is based on Jeff VanderMeer’s 2014 novel, the first book in the Southern Reach trilogy. The second book is titled Authority and then followed with Acceptance. Garland says he was wrapping up Ex Machina when Scott Rudin pitched him the idea.
“I don’t finish books, or films, or anything, really, if it isn’t grabbing me for one reason. Well, I read it in a sitting. I found the atmosphere incredibly strong and I liked the kind of dream state that it created and put me in. It had all sorts of qualities that I found really interesting. I thought immediately, Yes, I’d like to try this.”
Isaac also recently told EW that Annihilation would be “very weird and very beautiful.” Garland added:
“That’s what we were shooting for, The beauty part of it was quite important. Even when it’s grim, and something dark is happening, there’s quite an overt beauty, and we took pains to make sure that happened.”
Even though the original book is part of a trilogy, Garland says he's treating his film as a standalone.
“I did once work on a film called Dredd, which I imagined to be the first part of a trilogy,” says Garland. “But it’s not something I like doing. I’d rather work on a story that I felt was self-contained rather than one that sort of had a ‘dot-dot-dot’ at the end. I think that provokes a sort of instant, understandable, cynicism. We sense the money grab and I feel that pollutes the story. So, right from the get-go, I did not think of this as being part of a trilogy; I thought of it as being just a single, self-contained movie. If other people wanted to do that, that would be fine. That’s none of my business. But from my point of view, it’s just one.”
Annihilation is set to arrive in theaters February 23, 2018.