Alex Garland | |
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Born | Alexander Medawar Garland 26 May 1970 London, England |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1996–present |
Spouse | Paloma Baeza |
Children | 2 |
Relatives | Nicholas Garland (father) Peter Medawar (maternal grandfather) Jean Medawar (maternal grandmother) |
Alexander Medawar Garland (born 26 May 1970) is an English novelist, screenwriter and director. He rose to prominence with his novel The Beach (1996). He subsequently received praise for writing the Danny Boyle films 28 Days Later (2002) and Sunshine (2007), as well as Never Let Me Go (2010) and Dredd (2012). In video games, he co-wrote Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (2010) and served as a story supervisor on DmC: Devil May Cry (2013).
Garland made his directorial debut when he wrote and directed the sci-fi thriller Ex Machina (2014). The film earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, and won him three British Independent Film Awards, including Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best British Independent Film. His second film, Annihilation (2018), an adaptation of the 2014 novel of the same name, was also a critical success. This was followed by the horror thriller Men (2022) and action epic Civil War (2024), both produced by A24. In television, Garland served as a writer, director and executive producer for the FX miniseries Devs (2020).
Alexander Medawar Garland [1] was born in London on 26 May 1970, [2] [3] the son of psychologist Caroline (née Medawar) and political cartoonist Nicholas Garland. He has a younger brother and two older paternal half-siblings. He is the maternal grandson of writer Jean Medawar and biologist Peter Medawar, the latter of whom was born in Brazil to an English mother and Lebanese father. [4] Medawar was educated at University College School in Hampstead and later graduated from the University of Manchester with an Art History degree. [5] [6]
Garland's first novel, The Beach , was published in 1996. Based upon his travels across Europe and Thailand, it tells the story of a young English backpacker who discovers an unspoiled seashore occupied by a community of like-minded backpackers. The novel is noted for its references to drug culture, sequences of hallucinations, and unique depictions of excess and utopia. The Beach was initially met with positive reviews, and with a spreading word of mouth response, the novel grew in popularity; it led some critics to regard Garland a key voice of Generation X. [7] He would later speak of his discomfort with the fame The Beach brought him. [5] The Beach has been translated into 25 different languages [8] and sold close to 700,000 copies by the start of 1999. [9] It was developed into a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. In 2003, the novel was Ranked 103 in BBC's The Big Read poll. [10]
Garland's The Tesseract (1998) is a non-linear narrative with several interwoven characters, set in Manila, Philippines. The novel is characterized by a post-modernist narrative style and structure. It explores several themes such as love and violence through each character's circumstance and context of surroundings as well as seemingly inconsequential actions and the repercussions of those actions on other characters. The Tesseract did not enjoy the critical or commercial success of The Beach, but it too has a film adaptation.
Throughout his career and work, Garland has expressed his love of travel (particularly backpacking) and his love of Manila, much of which influenced his work. [8]
In 2002, Garland wrote the screenplay for Danny Boyle's film 28 Days Later , starring Cillian Murphy. [11] He has said that the script was influenced by 1970s zombie films and English science fiction like The Day of the Triffids . [12] Video games such as the Resident Evil series also served as an influence for 28 Days Later, with Garland crediting the first game for revitalizing the zombie genre. [13] Inspiration for the "Rage" virus came from real-world infections such as Ebola and filoviruses. [12] He won a Best Screenplay honor at the 2004 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards for his script of the film.
In 2005, Garland wrote a screenplay for a film adaptation of Halo . [14] D. B. Weiss and Josh Olson rewrote this during 2006 for a 2008 release, [15] [16] although the film was later canceled. [16] In 2007, he wrote the screenplay for the film Sunshine , which was his second screenplay to be directed by Danny Boyle and to star Cillian Murphy. Garland served as an executive producer on 28 Weeks Later , the sequel of 28 Days Later. He wrote the screenplay for the 2010 film Never Let Me Go , based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. He also wrote the script for Dredd , an adaptation of the Judge Dredd comic book series from 2000 AD . In 2018, Karl Urban, who played the eponymous role in the film, stated that it was Garland who deserved credit for also directing Dredd. [17]
Garland made his directorial debut with Ex Machina , a 2014 feature film based on his own story and screenplay, starring Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander and Oscar Isaac. The film won a Jury Prize at the 2015 Gerardmer Film Festival, and earned Garland a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Garland's second film, Annihilation (2018), was based on Jeff VanderMeer's 2014 science fiction novel of the same name. Garland has described it as "an adaptation [that] was a memory of the book," rather than book-referenced screenwriting, to capture the "dream like nature" and tone of his reading experience. [18] [19] [20] Production began in 2016, [21] and the film was released in February 2018. [22]
In January 2021, Garland was hired to direct his third film, Men , starring Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear. [23] The film follows a young woman who goes on a solo vacation to the English countryside after the death of her ex-husband. [24] Released in May 2022, it received generally positive reviews, though its narrative approach received some criticism. However, critic Jonathan Rosenbaum placed Men on his Best Films of 2022 list. [25]
In April 2022, it was announced that Garland was reteaming with A24 for his fourth feature, Civil War , an action epic starring Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, and previous collaborators Stephen McKinley Henderson and Cailee Spaeny. [26] The film is set to be released in April 2024.
Garland will next reunite with Boyle to write 28 Years Later , the long-gestating sequel to 28 Days Later, which is intended to launch a new trilogy of zombie films. Murphy will serve as an executive producer. The film is set to be released by Sony. [27]
In February 2024, it was revealed that Charles Melton was in talks to star in Garland's upcoming untitled war film with A24. [28] The film was cowritten and will be co-directed by Garland and Ray Mendoza, the military supervisor for Civil War. [28]
Garland wrote, served as executive producer, and directed the eight-episode miniseries Devs , about the "mysterious ongoings at a tech company", for FX; the series was greenlit in August 2018, and premiered 5 March 2020 on FX on Hulu. [29] It stars Ex Machina and Annihilation actress Sonoya Mizuno, alongside Nick Offerman, Jin Ha, Zach Grenier, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Cailee Spaeny, and Alison Pill. [29] Spaeny, who did not audition for the role as Garland had wanted her specifically for it, stated that Devs was short for Development, and that the series would explore the idea of the multiverse. [30]
Garland and Tameem Antoniades co-wrote the video game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. They won a 2011 award from the Writer's Guild of Great Britain. Garland also served as a story supervisor on the game DmC: Devil May Cry in 2013.
Garland is married to English-Mexican actress Paloma Baeza, with whom he has a son named Milo and a daughter named Eva. [5]
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2002 | 28 Days Later | No | Yes | No | |
2007 | Sunshine | No | Yes | No | |
28 Weeks Later | No | Uncredited | Executive | Rewrites [31] | |
2010 | Never Let Me Go | No | Yes | Executive | |
2012 | Dredd | Uncredited | Yes | Yes | [32] [33] |
2014 | Ex Machina | Yes | Yes | No | |
2018 | Annihilation | Yes | Yes | No | |
2022 | Men | Yes | Yes | No | |
2024 | Civil War | Yes | Yes | No |
Executive producer
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Executive Producer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2020 | Devs | Yes | Yes | Yes | Also creator |
Year | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
2010 | Enslaved: Odyssey to the West | Co-writer |
2013 | DmC: Devil May Cry | Story supervisor |
Since he made his directorial debut, Garland has worked with several actors multiple times.
Work Actor | 2014 | 2018 | 2020 | 2022 | 2024 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Karl Glusman | |||||
Stephen McKinley Henderson | |||||
Oscar Isaac | |||||
Corey Johnson | |||||
Sonoya Mizuno | |||||
Nick Offerman | |||||
Cailee Spaeny |
Title | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic |
---|---|---|
Ex Machina | 92% (284 ratings) [34] | 78 (42 reviews) [35] |
Annihilation | 88% (327 ratings) [36] | 79 (51 reviews) [37] |
Devs | 82% (90 ratings) [38] | 71 (32 reviews) [39] |
Men | 69% (255 ratings) [40] | 65 (55 reviews) [41] |
Civil War | 88% (26 ratings) [42] | 73 (12 reviews) [43] |
DNA Films is a British film production company founded by Andrew Macdonald and Duncan Kenworthy in 1997, best known for producing films directed by Alex Garland. They also have a television division with Walt Disney Television called DNA TV Limited.
Andrew Brion Hogan Goddard is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. He began his career writing episodes for the television shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Alias, and Lost. After moving into screenwriting in film, he wrote Cloverfield (2008), World War Z (2013), and The Martian (2015), the latter earning him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2011, he made his directorial debut with The Cabin in the Woods.
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Domhnall Gleeson is an Irish actor and screenwriter. He is the son of actor Brendan Gleeson, with whom he has appeared in a number of films and theatre projects. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Media Arts from Dublin Institute of Technology.
Andrew Macdonald is a Scottish film producer, best known for his collaborations with screenwriter John Hodge and director Danny Boyle (including Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, The Beach and 28 Days Later, and writer-director Alex Garland.
A24 is an American independent entertainment company that specializes in film and television production, as well as film distribution. The company is based in Manhattan.
Annihilation is a 2014 novel by Jeff VanderMeer. It is the first entry in VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy and follows a team of four women who set out into an area known as Area X, which is abandoned and cut off from the rest of civilization; they believe they are the 12th expedition, with all previous expeditions falling apart due to disappearances, suicides, aggressive cancers, and mental trauma.
The Southern Reach Trilogy is a series of novels by the American author Jeff VanderMeer first published in 2014—Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance. The trilogy takes its name from the secret agency that is central to the plot. In 2013, Paramount Pictures bought the movie rights for the series, and a film adaptation of Annihilation was made with Alex Garland as writer-director. The film was released in 2018.
David Lowery is an American filmmaker.
Ex Machina is a 2014 science fiction psychological thriller film written and directed by Alex Garland in his directorial debut. A co-production between the United Kingdom and the United States, it stars Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, and Oscar Isaac. It follows a programmer who is invited by his CEO to administer the Turing test to an intelligent humanoid robot.
Ben Salisbury is a British composer, particularly known for his work in film and television. He has also worked as a co-writer, arranger and musician with a number of bands. He studied music at Newcastle University and Bournemouth University.
Sonoya Mizuno is a British actress. She is known for her roles in the Netflix series Maniac (2018), the HBO series House of the Dragon (2022–), the FX miniseries Devs (2020) and the film Crazy Rich Asians (2018).
Annihilation is a 2018 British-American science fiction psychological cosmic horror written and directed by Alex Garland, loosely based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer. It stars Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, and Oscar Isaac. The story follows a group of explorers who enter "The Shimmer", a mysterious quarantined zone of mutating plants and animals caused by an alien presence.
Cailee Spaeny is an American actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Priscilla Presley in the biopic Priscilla (2023), which earned her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress in addition to a nomination for a Golden Globe Award.
Devs is an American science fiction thriller television miniseries created, written, and directed by Alex Garland. It premiered on March 5, 2020, on FX on Hulu.
Rob HardyB.S.C., is an English cinematographer. He frequently collaborates with director Alex Garland, working on the science fiction films, Ex Machina and Annihilation and the television show Devs. He has also worked with John Crowley on his films Boy A (2007) and Is Anybody There? (2008). His other works include The Invisible Woman, Testament of Youth and Mission: Impossible – Fallout.
Priscilla is a 2023 American biographical drama film written, directed, and produced by Sofia Coppola, based on the 1985 memoir Elvis and Me by Priscilla Presley and Sandra Harmon. It follows the life of Priscilla and her complicated romantic relationship with Elvis Presley.
Civil War is a 2024 dystopian action film, written and directed by Alex Garland. The film stars Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Nick Offerman. Its plot follows a team of journalists who travel across the United States during the rapidly escalating Second American Civil War, which has engulfed the entire nation.
Ex Machina (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the score album to the 2015 film of the same name. Composed and produced by Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow of Portishead, the film marked their first feature film scoring stint, after the soundtrack for the initial temp score to the 2012 film Dredd, was not accepted by the directors, and then released into a standalone album titled Drokk. Garland then roped the duo for Ex Machina.
Q. You were born in London, May 26, 1970? Correct? A. Yep, that's right. So I'm told.
A huge part of the success of 'Dredd' is in fact due to Alex Garland and what a lot of people don't realize is that Alex Garland actually directed that movie. ... I just hope when people think of Alex Garland's filmography that 'Dredd' is the first film that he made before Ex Machina.