As he prepares to make his follow-up to Ex Machina, Alex Garland is busy building a great cast for sci-fi novel adaptation Annihilation. The latest name on his wish list is Jennifer Jason Leigh, who is now in talks to join the movie.
For this one, Garland has adapted Jeff VanderMeer’s book, which chronicles an expedition into a mysterious, remote and sealed-off zone known as Area X. For 30 years, Area X has been labelled by the government as an environmental disaster zone, despite all appearances to the contrary. And for all that time, a secret agency called the Southern Reach has monitored Area X and sent in expeditions to try to discover the truth. Some expeditions have suffered terrible consequences. Others have reported nothing out of the ordinary. Now, as it to be changing and perhaps expanding, the next investigation will attempt to succeed where all others have failed. What is happening in the zone? What is the true nature of the invisible border that surrounds it? Natalie Portman will be a biologist looking for answers to her husband’s disappearance as part of an earlier expedition. She and her colleagues soon discover that all is definitely not what it seems and that they’re being manipulated....
Tessa Thompson and Gina Rodriguez are both already aboard to make up the female science team that accompanies Portman, a group that comprises a anthropologist; a surveyor; and a psychologist who serves as the group’s de facto leader.
Leigh was last seen in The Hateful Eight, which scored her a first Oscar nomination. And she's also part of the voice cast for Charlie Kaufman's Anomalisa, which itself is up for a golden gong and will be out here on March 11.