Alex Garland Ready For Annihilation

Screenwriter Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Sunshine, Dredd) will be directing an adaptation of Annihilation, the first book in Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy. Annihilation marks Garland's second time in the director's chair, following Ex Machina, Garland's debut about android intelligence.

Annihilation follows an expedition into a quarantined region of the United States called "Area X," a mysterious zone that has claimed the lives of all previous expeditions who have gone before, ending in mass suicides, cancer or a hail of self-inflicted gunfire.

VanderMeer wrote all three novels at once (Authority and Acceptance are written from different perspectives), which involve ecological anomalies and terrifying life forms.

Scott Rudin (No Country For Old Men, The Social Network) will produce for Paramount.